 Let's pray. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you. Father, we bless your name. Lord, we thank you, God. We thank you for being with us. We thank you for leading us, Lord. We thank you for leading us all these years and all these days, Father God. We thank you that you continue to lead us, Lord. Master, we bless your name, Lord. We thank you for, Lord, your word says that you know the end from the beginning. Your word says, God, the very thoughts that you have for us is to give us a hope and a future. Father, we thank you that you called us to grow, Lord, strong in the spirit, to be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. Lord, that's your will and desire. Father God, we thank you that, Lord, you want us to grow in our understanding, grow in our knowledge of you and the Lord of the things of the spirit and of your word. We thank you, Lord. We thank you, Father God. Lord, even as we commit ourselves today, Master, we pray, Lord, that you would sharpen our thinking, our minds may be renewed to the truth. Our minds, O Father God, may be filled and saturated with your word today. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Yes, Lord. Lord, we ask that you would saturate our minds, Lord. Saturate our thoughts, Father God. Fill our minds, Lord, with your word, Father God, and with the work of your Lord, the touch of your spirit, Lord. May our minds be touched, O Father God. Yes, Lord, I pray, Lord, even as you touch our minds, Lord, Lord, with your thoughts, Lord, I pray that our will, O Father God, will be stronger, God, to make the right decisions, Father God, that we'll be strong, to make the right choices, Lord, that we'll be strong in our minds, strong in our thinking of Father God. Lord, I pray that we'll be strong in our will, that you will increase our willpower, Lord, to do the right thing, to make righteous choices, Father God, and to refuse, O God, the works of the enemy, to refuse compromise, to refuse all those things, O Father God, that are not benefiting us, Lord. We pray that you'll give us, Lord, strength now, Lord, even right now, Lord. Touch us, touch us, Lord, that we might be strong. I pray for clarity in thinking. I pray, Father God, I pray against all confusion of the enemy. I pray against all confusion of the enemy. All the strategies of the enemy to bring in fear, all the strategies of the enemy to bring in confusion, to bring in non-clarity of things. I just cancel it in the mighty name of Jesus. All those things are broken. The enemy's influence is broken. The enemy's influence over our minds, our imagination, is broken in the mighty name of Jesus. I just pray for a great release in the mind, great release in the thinking, in the place of a weight or a burden. Let there be a release, let there be liberty in the name of Jesus by the Spirit of our God. Hallelujah. We thank you, Lord. We come at this time into your mighty hands. In Jesus' matchless name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, so last class, we looked at, I think, a little bit of, you know, the creativity and also we moved into what is called as critical thinking. And we, and just like how we have creative thinking, you know, we also have critical thinking, which means to, you know, to think rationally, to think of all the options, to not come to any false conclusions or assumptions, and all are rational for making decisions, you know, to be, to be, to have, to have its roots in good thinking. You know, we looked at what is good thinking, what is critical thinking, and how we can refuse or, you know, false assumptions, right? So we looked at that and some of the videos also we looked at. So today we'll look at another aspect, which is when we are working in groups, right? Or even when we work individually, one very important aspect, which is aspect, which, which really we need to focus on and develop is decision making, right? When we come to make decisions based on all this, you know, based on creative thinking, based on critical thinking, we are, you know, as ministers of God, or maybe as people who are working for maybe in an office or a ministry, or maybe even as you are self-employed, you know, you're doing your own thing, own business, we need to have good understanding of how decisions are made or good, making good decisions. Now that is very, very important, that's crucial, because once we make those choices, then we begin to live out of that choices, right? We maybe, maybe make a decision about ministry to say, okay, we want to do this, we want to move here, you know, as part of the ministry decision, we want to move here to this town or to this country and start something, so that's a decision. Now, how did you base, how did you make your decision, right? Because that is very important. Of course, as believers, we have the Holy Spirit who is leading us, we have the Word of God with us, we have the Word of God to help us to, which is the Word of God is the lamp to our feet and light to our path. So what does it mean? That means that I can live my life, I can use the Word of God to see where I am going. I can use the Word of God, I can depend on the Word of God to see where I'm going, so that I can, I know where to put my foot, where to put my feet, and I can take where to take that next step. So that is what it means, the Word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And so it means that, you know, it's short-term decisions, feet, you know, where can I put my, where can I put my foot now? A lamp to our feet and a light to our path, which means a path is something further on, right? So you can see further and see, okay, this is the path. This path leads there and the Word of God is a light to our path also, which means something that is long-term, okay? Something that is for today, tomorrow, and maybe this week, decisions that need to be made, the Word of God sheds light. Some long-term things, okay, this month, next month, next year, a few years from now, the Word of God eliminates the path, okay? So we have that as believers, okay? But it's also important for us to learn some practical skills on how we can make decisions. Now we have this, you know, these resources, we have the Spirit of God indwelling us, so which is wonderful, which gives us an edge, right? Which gives us, which really places us in a very, very advantageous position, advantageous place. Now we need to make use of it, make certain choices based on that, right? So let's look at, very quickly look at decision making in the sense to solve problems, to make decisions about certain things, what to do, what not to do, you know, certain decisions. So what is, really, what is decision making, okay? Let me just put it here on the chat. So this is in making. It means it's the, decision making is the act of choosing between two or more causes of action. So what does that mean? It means that you have certain options, like option one, option two, option three, option four, option five. So we have all these five options, right? You can choose one of those or several of those. Now what is the process or what do you, based on what do you choose, how do you actually come to a place of choosing what is the best, right? What is the best, what will solve the problem, how do you choose that, right? So it's good to understand that, it's good to learn, how do I do that. So basically we are looking at decision making to solve problems, but decision making also can be to, you know, to move into the next season of life and also to make certain conclusive choices based on how God is leading us, right? So one way by which we make decisions and a lot of times people do that is, you know, based on feeling. Like this is what I feel intuitively. This is, this is what I feel on the inside. So I'm going to make a choice, right? I'm going to make, so intuition, right? This is based on our experience, based on our, the information that we have, right? So we have a sense of feeling, okay? And also, you know, as believers, we know we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who also, you know, leads us. So we are being led by the Spirit to make decisions, right? To make choices. So, so we have that advantage of having the Spirit of God speak to us, lead us, and we are being aware of that to make those choices. So intuition. The other one is reasoning. Like the, the Lord who created us in the inner man who gave us the Spirit to indwell us, who indwells us. It's also one who created our minds and the way we function, what we think in our mind, the way we reason things out. He's the one who gave us, right? And in fact, we are called to renew our mind, which means to renew the mind, we have to use the mind, right? We are called to study, meditate on things. We are called to you know, confess all that requires using the mind, right? So reasoning is using the information, that is, what are the facts that are in front of us? Okay, what are, what information do we have? Like, is it, when it comes to making some financial decisions? Okay, so what, what do we have? You know, what is the income? What is the expenditure? What is the budget? You know, those kind of things. So you have make the decision based on some of the facts and figures, the numbers that are before us, charts that are before us, right? So we reason out and say, this is why I am taking this course of action, because option one will not work. Option two, maybe it will work for some time, but option three is the best. And these are my reasons for it, right? So reasoning. So based on this, we make decisions. Okay, so the best thing is to apply both, to use both, you know, to be intuitive, the sense you sense what's in your spirit, but at the same time, don't reject reasoning, right? Because a mind that is renewed to the word of God is a very strong asset. A mind that is renewed to the word of God will not cancel out the leading of the spirit, right? So that's very important for us to put that together, to use our renewed mind to lock in, you know, to make, to establish what the spirit of God is saying. So, and go with those decisions. So we need both. So effective decision making, let's look at a little bit of that. So, yeah, just a minute, let me just put it on the chat. You know, we can look at some factors which, which prevent effective decision making, and we can avoid that. Okay, so one of the things is that we don't have enough information. We don't have enough information. Okay, what train should I take? Now, if I know about only one train, now that's not a good choice. Okay, that's not a good decision because let's say the train is only once a week, and I know only about that train. Then I'm making, I'm not making a good decision about travel, because I have to wait for that one train in that particular day of the week in order to make it. Now, but if I have information what are those trains that are available? What are the time timings at which they come? And what time does it reach? Now, with that information, I can make a informed decision. Like I can reason out and say, okay, this is convenient. This is not convenient. So let's take, you know, and it's, let's make a decision based on all this information that we have and make a choice. So when we don't have enough information, then our decision making is hampered. Or it could be too much information, right? Too many, too many choices. And we, and we get a little bit confusing. Okay, you know, what do I choose now? There are too many things. And everything seems to be similar or very, you know, very close to each other. The differences are not much. So what do I, you know, sometimes we, we get into what is called as an analysis mode, you know, we're constantly analyzing, analyzing, analyzing and not making a decision. Sometimes too much information also does that. So, but how do we solve that? But so we look at information that is really required. Okay, we, we kind of funnel out what is actually required. What is the information? And based on that, we maybe five, six, six, five or six things, we make a decision if there's too much information. Okay, sometimes it could be that too many people are involved in the decision making process. Okay. So too many people in the sense it's not, it's not just you. Maybe there are others who are involved in the process. And well, nobody's coming to a conclusion, right? And so it's making things difficult, right? People have their own views, they'll have their own ideas. And there's no conclusion that is reached, right? Too many people. Sometimes what makes decision making difficult is also some selfish motives or vested interests, which means that, okay, there are, let's say it involves decision making involves people. There is a group and you need to decide. Now, if there are selfish motives, right, out of which people are saying, okay, we need to do this because it's convenient for me because I'm getting benefited. Okay. Then that's again, not a good decision, right? Because it's, the choice is made based out of selfish motives so that I get benefited. And it's not looking at solving the problem. Or it's not like looking at making a decision which will help the entire group, like we should be productive for the entire group so that everyone is benefited, right? So if it's a selfish choice, if there's a vested interest, then it results in bad decisions. And also it does not help, right? So what is the other one? Emotional attachment. In a sense, you're saying, okay, we've already, let's say, you know, you're in a certain space, you're in a certain house and, you know, you've grown, the family has grown and you need, you need a bigger house, right? You need to move to a bigger house. Maybe it's something like that, situation is like that. But then you are emotionally attached to this house saying, you know, I was born here, the children are born here, has so many memories, wonderful memories. And, you know, I don't want to leave. Or I can't go to that place, because I'm attached to this, you know, there's too many things, emotional attachments. So that is also not helping us to make a good decision. Whereas, you know, it's not like you do not have the means, it's not that you don't have the resources. But you still don't make a choice to move to a bigger place, not because of the resources, resources are there. But because you're emotionally attached to this, like you're saying, I like this place a lot, because of this, this, though it's not convenient, though it's not comfortable, though it's leaking in the frames, you know, though it's hot in the summer, I'll stay because of these things. That's a bad decision. So emotional attachments also help us, or, you know, sometimes make us decide, make some bad choices. Or sometimes, this is the opposite of what I said just now. Sometimes what happens is there are, there's no emotional attachment. You know, it's like this, right? You need to be vested in it emotionally. Because one thing is, you feel that either way, it's okay. I just don't care. So there's no emotional attachment in the sense in the decision making, saying, I don't really care. It doesn't, it doesn't help me. It doesn't move me. You know, so one way or the other, you know, it's okay. It's fine. So in that case, what happens is certain bad decisions can be made, right? Because you're not, you're not looking into it because you're, you don't care, right? You're not, one is not attached to this thing. You know, you know, you're not interested in it. You're not moved by it. So you just say whatever is okay, anything is okay. So in that sense, sometimes bad choices are made. So to avoid this is to make effective decisions. So when we, when we do the opposite of it, maybe when there's not information, not enough information, you collect the right information. When there's too much information, you take out, weed out, cull out and use only what is required. And then, you know, you do it. If there are too many people involved in the process, then you decide who are those key people who need to actually decide, right? Who are going to, who are authorized to make the decision, maybe. And also, you know, when it comes to vested interest to be discerning and see, you know, am I, or even personally, right? Am I making this decision because it'll benefit me or am I making a decision because it will, it is actually solve the problem, right? It'll solve the problem. It's good for the company. It's good for the ministry. Good for the organization, right? Even though personally, I'm not benefited, but it's good. It solves the problem. Maybe personally, I might have to sacrifice with things. You know, personally, I might have to maybe, you know, forego certain, you know, forego some sleep. I might have to wake up early, you know, or, you know, because I need to reach there on time, but it helps the ministry. It's helping, you know, so when there's no vested interest, right? Emotional attachments and, you know, no emotional attachments. So that we saw. So this would help us to make the right or good decisions. Okay. Now, the thing is, when we have a group, okay, individually, we can make decisions, but we also need the skill to make a decision as a group. Okay. Now, the group has to decide and the group has to make a decision. So how do we facilitate that? Because as leaders, I'm sure that we will be leading a group, right? And you don't want to be the only person to make a decision. So there are several ways by which we make decision in a group. Some are good for certain tasks. Some are not. So group decision making. So we looked at decisions, why decisions, the importance of making decisions, right? And how not to make decisions or what will cause us to make bad decisions, right? Now, here we look at a group. If there's a group, how can I facilitate or how can we, me being part of a group or as a leader of the group, how can we make decisions? Now, there are several processes for that. One is, it's a unilateral decision or it's a very autocratic decision, unilateral, meaning one person decides. One person. So the leader decides and says, okay, this is what we are doing. Okay. Now, certain tasks have to be taken that way. Certain decisions have to be taken, done that way. Okay. Because it's, now in this particular decision, there's no consultation. Okay. The leader may not consult and say, will not, you know, consult, ask you, you know, what do you think? Do you think this is good? The leader decides, the leader makes the decision. And that decision, now the entire group has to carry out. The leader decides that this is the time that we are going. Or this is the time, this is what we need to do. And the group has to do it. Okay. Now, it's good for certain minor decisions. Okay. Like certain decisions for which you need to actually decide quickly. And you need to decide quickly. And it's not a major, you know, it's not a big decision. It's just a small decision. And it does not affect the whole group that much. It's a minor decision. And the leader needs to decide quickly. Cannot wait for everyone to come in and meet with everyone, talk to everyone and decide. So it's a decision is made. Okay. But the thing is, the problem with this is, if it is repeated, okay, the leader makes it a habit to decide for the group. Okay. I will decide you just have to obey or you just have to comply with this decision. If it's repeated and if certain inappropriate decisions are made or bad choices are made. Now, the thing, that choice is not helping the group. In fact, it places the group in a disadvantage. Right. So then what happens is, the group doesn't feel committed. Okay. If you keep on saying, okay, this is what we'll do as outreach. This is what we're going to do. That's the thing. I've decided no discussions. Then the group will do it. But there's no commitment. They're saying because they were not consulted. It was not their idea. It is your idea. And so they don't feel that committed to carry out that particular choice. Right. You see that. So some of the disadvantages is that there's no commitment. So they might do it in a half-hearted manner. And doing it because if I don't do it, I'll be out of a job. Because I don't do it, you know, I'll, you know, I'll be pulled up and ask questions. So I'll do it. But it's going to be a very hard, half-hearted kind of a effort. Okay. So that's unilateral. The second one is what we can call as a hand-class, oops, one second. Meaning it's, it's like, you know, I, let's say as a leader, I make a choice and say, okay, you know, why don't we do this? And another person in the group says, okay, I second it. You know, I agree with it. Let's do it. Okay. So that second person may be a assistant leader. Okay. You are the leader. The other person in the group is an assistant leader. Then then that whole group is there. So the assistant leader says, yeah, it's a good idea. Let's do it. So it's like shaking hands, no? The leader puts out the hand, the assistant leader shakes hand. It's a hand-class decision is made. So this also is good for certain, certain certain situations, you know, because there is a suggestion and one person who also enters, maybe, you know, it's good when it, when it, when it's required for specialized decisions. Okay. No, not everybody in the group is a specialist in that field. Maybe it's something to do with accounts. You know, not everybody knows accounts, not everybody is a specialist. Maybe it's something to do with IT. Not everybody is, is a specialist. So the leader says, okay, let's do this. And let's do this kind of a thing. Maybe it's related to accounting, etc. And then the, the other specialist in the group would agree with it. And the decision is made. Okay. So again, so here, the, the, the one who made the decision, the one who suggested it, the one who agreed to it, both of them have high commitment to the task. Right. So they are committed to it and they, they have high commitment. So because they, they are the ones who suggested and the same. But the others, they may not be as committed as these two are. So that's the downside of it. That's the flip side of it. Right. Then we have something like a, what you can call as a click or, or a small group, which decides for a subgroup, which decides for the entire group. Let's close subgroup. So it's like a core group, which decides for the, what is best for the group. Okay. Which, which is also work. So the group decides, the group discusses the problem, the group decides and, and the group, the smaller group decides for the entire larger group. So it's like a core group. Okay. So this, this is also one way of making a decision. It has advantages because it's a group decision. It's a, it's a, what do you call a sample size, you know, it represents the whole crowd or the bigger group. And so it's a smaller group. It's representative of that bigger group. So they make that choice. They make the decision. And it could work well because not, even though everyone was not consulted, the by and large, it's a, it's a representation of the group. Okay. Like you get feedback from a few people. Hey, what do you think? What do you think of the food? Okay. What do you think of the food? And maybe, maybe you checked with, maybe there are 100 people in the, in the entire group, but you checked with about 25, 25%. Okay. And the feedback of the 25% based on the 25% you made a decision saying, okay, next time also we'll have the same menu. Okay. Why? Because the 25% felt that it was good. Right. Or the opposite of it, you know, there's 25% felt that it was bad. So we're not having this. But that out of that 75, you know, it could work well because it's a, it represents that 100. Okay. There are men, women, maybe, you know, whatever, different people, it depends on how the, what kind of a subgroup it is. Right. Which represents the entire group. So it could work well, but it need not also because the 75% which got left out of this decision may not be thinking on the same lines as the 25. So you need to consider that. What is this 25% like? Right. Maybe the 75% are all, you know, people from a different region, they have different tastes. Right. And this 25% are all from, let's say 25% are from South, 75% are from North. Okay. So the 25% whom we consulted are like, okay, rice is fine. We'll do rice. But the 75% are saying, if you don't want rice, we want chapathis instead. Right. But this 25% has made the decision for the bigger group. So it depends on what kind of a group this 25% is. It could work well, but it depends on that. Okay. Then the other thing is a kind of a voting system where the majority, you know, you get everybody to make a decision. You know, it's like a vote. Okay guys, here's a poll as an opinion poll. What do you think? Should we start at 10? Should we start at 9? Everybody votes. Okay. And you get a majority, let's say 90% of them think that starting at 9 is okay. That is 10% thinks 10 is okay. Now, again, for certain decisions, certain tasks, this will be fine. You know, you can take a majority. The problem we encounter is, suppose that 90% who said, 9 o'clock, we will start. Now, what if they are wrong? Okay. What if they did not look into certain things, certain factors? So they say, 9 o'clock is fine. And they voted. And then we went to the majority. The majority could be wrong. The majority could be the way they arrived at that decision. Maybe they arrived at it without thinking through. They say, oh, my friend, you know, it's like, sometimes in school, it happens. I remember, hey, what group are you taking? After you finish your 10 standard, what group are you taking? Oh, I'm taking maths and science. Okay, I'll also take maths and science. It's not that it is, the person didn't think through. They said, okay, you decided I'll also do the same thing. Okay, so the people can vote based on that. Oh, this is what you're choosing? Hey, you know, okay, I'll also choose this. They may not have thought through. They may not have thought through. Okay, what is actually good for the entire group? What is what will solve the difficulty? Right. So majority doesn't mean that the majority is always right. For all you know, that 10% which said 10 o'clock, they might have made a very informed, well-informed choice. They might think, okay, these are people who work late. And so, you know, coming early will be difficult because the majority would have voted and they're not sure about nine. Right. Okay. The other thing is consensus, which means it's a process. Consensus is the whole group has come to a decision. There has been consultation, there has been discussion, and you know, everybody's heard, and then you come to a decision. Okay, let me just put a few end of it, you know, there might even be a voting. So it's a, we see that it's a process. Each person is asked to make, you know, the best possible decision for the group. There are not too many proposals, too many options. You know, you've limited your options. And everybody's heard. Everybody says, you know, this is why I feel it's okay. This is why I feel it's not okay. And at the end of it, you might even call for a vote. Then everybody is already said what they want to do or what they don't want to do. Okay. So, but the thing is, there are some, the advantages, advantages that if this kind of a decision is made, then the group is very, very committed. Why? Because they decided it. Right. They made the choice. They decided, so they are, they say, okay, we made the decision. So we will carry it out. We decided that we will come at this time. So we will come. Okay. Otherwise, it'll be like, you only decided, we didn't decide. Right. So here in this case, compared to the first one, which is unilateral decision, is the exact opposite of that. So everybody got a turn to talk about the advantages, disadvantages. And then finally said, okay, let's do this. Okay. Now the, so those are some of the advantages. Okay. But some of the disadvantages are again, the group could have discussed, group could have been influenced, the group could have thought about something selfishly and come to a decision. Right. So it may not be the right solution, even though there was consensus. Right. So there could be some people who are very, very manipulative in the group saying, you know, many, very manipulative, manipulated the decision, manipulated the emotions, caused fear in people. Say, hey, if you do this, you will, you know, you will end up, you know, working late in office. So you better not something like that in the conversation, in the process of discussing, maybe they manipulated the decision. Right. So, like that. So, so maybe, you know, sometimes people just want to win the argument. Right. What does that mean? That means that, okay, here's the choice that I'm making. And I just want to make sure that, you know, I'm putting forth all these arguments, and I want to win the argument at any cost. I've given all the reasons, and I want to, you know, win that argument. I'm not, I don't really care about, you know, is it benefiting? But I've got so much pride in, you know, presenting this and sharing this, but I want the group to make this decision. Right. So it could be that it goes against the right solution. Right. So sometimes it might happen also. And the other thing is, of course, it takes a lot of time because it's a process. It takes time. It takes time to discuss it, and so on. And sometimes we cannot, we don't have the luxury of so much time. Right. We need to decide fast. So, so those are some of the things. You know, if you notice, you know, I'm saying what is the best form of decision making, because it depends on the task. It depends on, you know, what is the kind of decision or the criticality of the decision. Outcome of making that decision, because some decisions are very, very big. It's going to affect the, you know, individuals in the organization or the group. And so you cannot take that lightly. So one person can't decide. Right. Or maybe it involves a collective effort of a group. Everybody has to give 100%. Only then it'll work. Right. So let's say you decide on finishing a work, you know, or maybe you're, the group is making a, let's say the group is making a film. It's a film of all testimonies or video of something that you're making. Now, it requires maybe five people in the group, all of them to work hard for the next two weeks. Or maybe they need to work 12 hours, 14 hours every day in order to able to do that. Now, who decides that we have to release it in two weeks? We have to finish the video. The group has to decide. If it's only one person in the group saying, hey, I've decided, you better do it. Then they may not put in, they may, if they fear that, okay, I might lose, you know, something at the end of it. But that's not the right motive for do the job. Right. It might not be excellent. It might, they might do it out of fear. They may not have good ideas. They might put in a very, they might finish it, but it, it's not really great. Right. So the thing is you, and also the other thing is that they may not also, they say, okay, I don't want to do this. Right. I can't put in that effort, et cetera, because why one person decided the others did not. So, so all those disadvantages are there. But we need to consider what is the task and then take a, make, employ the right method. I just want to show a couple of videos, which are, which is really, really good. And, you know, it talks about decision making that really works. Okay. You might have to listen a little carefully, because this person speaks a little fast. So let me just put the video. I'm Edward Museo, CEO of Group Harmonics, and I'm going to tell you about group decision making that works. When you have a group of people that need to come to a decision, the first most important thing you need to do is decide how they're going to decide. There are a number of ways to do that. Here we have five people, a leader, and four individuals that are kind of all set up to be equals. One thing we can do is just say, everybody's vote is equal and we make no change till everyone agrees. That's called consensus decision making. As you can imagine, it's rather slow. Often what we do is a modified version of that called the democratic method of decision making. In that case, we say if enough people vote yes on a change, it's okay if a few vote no, we still make the change. But in a sense, everyone's still treated as an equal, and the problem with that, although it is used in a lot of boards and groups like that, is that if people have specific expertise, that expertise doesn't always get weighed. So what we often do instead is we move to a different model. We put the manager in charge and then we organize the team around the manager like this. Now here again, there are some choices we can make. One thing we can do is have the manager or the leader just tell everyone else what to do like that. We call that a dictatorial method. Again, here we're not dealing with the expertise of the people. Usually what happens is something more like this. The manager talks to each of the people back and forth and then makes a decision. That's what's commonly called a consultative model of decision making. The problem with this though is again, if this is really a complex issue with a lot of expertise, often what these people know is dependent not only on the manager, but on what everybody else knows as well. And so we start to need a picture more like this, in which everyone is talking not only to the leader, but also to everyone else. The picture is a little bit messy and as you can imagine you need a good meeting process to handle this complexity. In that meeting process, what happens is all of the members of the meeting teach. They teach to each other and they teach to the decider. The decider's job is to learn as much as possible and then ultimately to decide. And that's not decide the majority decision or decide based on popularity is to decide what he or she thinks is best based upon what he or she has learned, even if other people don't agree. Now here's the trick. These are smart people with expertise and they're not going to necessarily agree with the decision. So before the first decision is made, you need to have a contract with your group called disagree and commit. Disagree and commit means that everyone agrees that once a decision is made, whether or not they agree with it, they will do three things. First, they will explain the rationale of the decision when they talk about it to other people. They won't say those dopey folks made this decision. They'll say we made this decision and here's why. The second thing is they will align their resources and that's 100% compliance, whether it's their own time, their groups if they're managers, they will do what the decision requires 100%. The third thing, and this is a little strange, is they will continue to seek contrary evidence if they disagree but without sabotaging the decision. Now that's an odd balance. Why would you want to do that? The reason is, although you're implementing the decision 100%, you're continuing to file away contrary evidence that might not support it, putting it in a file quietly. Why? If the decision works out, you take that file and you throw it away but if the decision doesn't work out, then you can bring that contrary evidence back to the group and in the next decision-making process you'll have that much more information. So, the next time you have a group of people that need to make a decision, before you do anything, decide what model of decision-making you're going to use, consensus, democratic, dictatorial, consultative or group consultative. And if you're going to do consultative or group consultative decision-making, be sure you have a disagree and commit contract before you start. It'll make sure your team decisions are the best decisions they can be and it'll make sure they stick. Okay, so just to reiterate what we saw, there are all these different models that we went through. It's given a different name for it, a dictatorial instead of what we looked at as unilateral and so on. But then we just need to understand that maybe in a group setting, from what we have seen, we see that a group consultative method works best. So, consultative meaning, the leader would check with each person. Suppose if I'm the leader, I'm checking with Dave, I'm checking with Kiran, I'm checking with Aaron, Kanan, Siddharth. I'm checking individually, okay, what do you think we should do? What do you think we should do? So, based on your experience, based on your knowledge, you say, okay, this is what we must do. Then I just put it down and then I make a decision. I say, okay, from what I've heard, this is what we can do. But if it's a group consultative, what happens is we meet as a group, not only am I asking Dave, but everybody is also listening. Kiran is also listening, Aaron is also listening, Kanan and Siddharth are also listening to what Dave is saying. And there is a discussion. So, they're saying, Dave, but you're saying this, but have you considered this? This could not work. Then Dave says, yeah, actually, yes, maybe this will work. And then everybody is discussing that. So, the group consultative will work because there are a lot more ideas that are generated and a lot more depth in thinking that can happen. But ultimately, it's not a democratic kind of a thing. It's not like the majority vote wins, because it can be a bad decision. But here there is consultation, we are discussing. And ultimately, the facts are there and the leader has to decide. The leader decides, okay, I have all this, I've seen this, but maybe now is not a good time to do this. So, that's the leader's call. The leader is looking into the future. It has more information. And maybe the leader feels that now is not the time. Maybe we should do it two years from now. This is good, but maybe we should do it. We should just stay. Now, that is also a decision. Deciding or coming to a place of saying, we will not decide now is also a decision. So, that the leader decides, the leader takes a call. So, this is something which is useful. This is something that we need to grow in. So, what we do is the next class, we look at another video on similar lines about making effective decisions as a group. Because I feel that this is something that can be a challenge, because we won't all make decisions for the group we have to consult, we have to discuss. So, how can we do that in a manner that everybody is committed to and everybody also participates in it. And so, therefore, it's a blessing for the ministry, for the workplace, and for us as individuals. So, we'll look at some more of that before we move on to the next topic. Okay, we'll stop here. God bless. Thank you. See you guys.