What is the 5-step ProConCloud process?
There is major inconsistency within decision making.
We all want to make better faster decisions, especially when the outcome of that decision could impact our life or organization in a significant way.
Yet, few of us are willing to invest the time to apply critical thinking to analyze such critical decisions. In fact, the two most common methods used for deliberative decision-making is still to simply ask an expert or to use a form of Benjamin Franklin’s simple pros/cons list that dates from 1772.
Unfortunately, while both methods do have benefits, they are also both particularly prone to error.
An expert can offer a more objective view, but unfortunately, we usually seek out advisors who will simply confirm our biases. And although pros/cons lists can help us slow down our thinking and/or expose our biases, we often fool ourselves in thinking we can do these in our head or we end up getting stuck when we cannot find a common utility (such as time or money) to compare pros with cons.
Surely, with all the advances in decision science over the past 250 years, there must be a better way?
This is the question that Dr. Alan Barnard, CEO of Goldratt Research Labs, has worked to address for more than two decades. He’s developed a new method and field-tested it with individuals and organizations around the globe to help prevent 5 of the most common decision mistakes we all make. He called his new method the “ProConCloud”.
The ProConCloud’s 5 Steps to prevent 5 of the most common mistakes in decision making
Define YOUR Problem and why it is important
We often waste our limited attention on unimportant issues or procrastinate on the issues that are important. Instead, we should always start by checking whether the issue we are facing really deserve our focus by validating why it is important both to us and other stakeholders to resolve.
Define YOUR and “THEIR” Conflicts
When faced with an important problem or opportunity, we often jump to a solution or simply look for someone to blame. Instead, we should identify the underlying conflict we face in dealing with this issue and listing the unique Pros and unique Cons both of the “Change” and “No Change” options we have. And if we are in fact blaming someone for causing the issue we are facing now (either ourselves or someone else), we should also put ourselves in “their” shoes and define their conflicconflict and the unique Pros and Cons of the action they took that we believed caused our problem and also the unique Pros and Cons of what we believe they should have done that could have prevented the problem or situation we are now facing.
Resolve Conflict(s) with 4 win:win options
We often focus on only one possible resolution or simply to look for a compromise. Instead, we should consider the four alternative win/win options that can resolve any conflict with more pros and less cons than the status quo. Dr. Barnard called these four options “Change++”, “No Change++”, “When+When Not” and “Another Change”. They are created by thinking about what we can add rather than what we have to give up.
YES-BUT Planning
We often ignore valid reservations— “Yes-Buts”—or use them as excuses not to act. Instead, we should use the valid Yes-Buts to create an even more robust solution and to build a “YES-AND” plan to implement our “fully baked” solution.
Design a GOOD Experiment
We often only partially implement solutions. Instead, we should create experiments that allow us to fully test our new solutions.
How to find limiting or harmful assumptions or beliefs With the ProConCloud Process
The Evolution and Application of the 5-step
ProConCloud method
The evolution of the ProConCloud process
In this video, the Professor shares with Jason the process he can use to help him make the decision on what to do about the disharmony he has at work with his co-workers as a result of their resistance to changes he is proposing to make things better, faster and easier for everyone.
Using the ProConCloud to prevent 5 common decision mistakes
In this second video, the Professor introduces Jason to the ProConCloud process – a problem solving and decision-making process which is an evolution of Benjamin Franklin’s Pro/Con List and Dr. Eli Goldratt’s Change Matrix and Evaporating Cloud methods that maintain their benefits while addressing their limitations. The ProConCloud process consists of 5 steps, each designed to overcome one of the 5 most common decision mistakes we make which wastes our scarcest resource – our limited attention.
How can I tell my story with the ProConCloud?
Learn how to use the first two steps of the new ProConCloud process to tell your story about an important problem or challenge you are facing and the associated conflicts you experience in dealing with it and also the one you blame (yourself or someone else).
Click the link below to register and complete the first two steps on our award-winning software Harmony.
How can you get access to the ProConCloud method?
Introducing the new Harmony Decision Maker App
The new HARMONY Decision Maker gives users access to a new breakthrough in the science of Decision Making – the 5-Step ProConCloud method.
Why not test drive HARMONY yourself to see how it can help your organization prevent these five mistakes using our 30 day free trial today!
specifically designed to help our users make better faster decisions right on
their Smart Phones or Tablets. You can download the HDM app from your
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