Decision-Making Practices to Drive Nonprofit Sustainability

Welcome to our first series of lessons on decision making! In this three-video line-up, we’re going to jump in on what decision making is, what skills you can use to up your decision-making game, and what effective decision making looks like.

In our nonprofit organizations, decisions are at the heart of our work. We’re always looking to do the most with limited resources, and that means being laser-focused on making good decisions!

And while we often think that our most limited resource is money, we also are particularly limited on time. By looking at decision making as a process, rather than single, stand-alone events, we have a great opportunity to maximize our time.The decision-making capacity of your organization relies on you, so let’s get moving on our first lesson!

*Note that a transcript of all audio is available for download on the lessons to come, as well as an audio-only version of the lessons. You can always turn on closed-captions on the video player settings above.

In this lesson, we'll jump in on an overview of what decision making is. Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.

Now that you have some basics about the topic, let's take a look at why decision making matters.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this lesson, we'll look at the key skills related to improving decision making. Remember: skills can be learned, practiced, and developed over time, so if you feel that you have a little (or a lot of!) room for improvement, know that you're on the right track!

In this lesson, we'll bring together our learning on why decision making matters and the skills needed to work effectively in this capacity. We'll answer the question "What does effective decision making look like?" and also consider how we measure some of the key indicators of decision making success.

Now that we know what effective decision making might look like, let's take a look at how we can measure it in action.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

Welcome to the silver badge series on decision making! Here's a quick overview of what you can expect in this lesson.

Now that we have a good idea about what decision-making is, why it matters, and what skills we can use to get better at it, let’s jump in on the next series of lessons that will cover how we can get better--as individuals and as organizations--at decision-making.

We’ll first start with looking at how we can get the gist of a choice we are facing, and we’ll revisit the decision-science approaches we introduced before. We’ll next look at each of those approaches individually and you’ll see some models that might help you structure your thinking. As decision-making relies on gathering information and doing research, we will also include a look at how to find and use data to navigate our toughest choices. We’ll close out our work in this series with a look at how we can set goals to improve our decision-making.

Let’s jump in!

*Remember that a transcript of all audio is available for download below on the lessons to come, and you can always turn on closed-captions on the video settings above.

In this lesson, we'll jump get ready to do some action planning around improving decision making, and look closely at how you can make (or support) a really great plan for positive change in your own nonprofit.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Now that we have a little bit of foundation in action planning, let's think about how we can apply this to your organization.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this lesson, we'll look at what types of information can be gathered, shared, analyzed, and used to improve an organization's work in information needed for decision-making.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

We've talked about action planning and information sharing, but what about reaching success? Goals are a means of knowing whether you have made the change you wanted (or missed the mark), and defining and setting decision-making improvement goals which means we will continually strive to improve.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Goals can get us to new levels of functionality in many areas of our organization. We'll next consider how setting decision-making improvement goals can be successful both at the individual and team levels.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In our final series on decision making, we'll look at getting everyone involved in improving this capacity...including you! We'll look at motivation, teamwork, and personal development to ultimately earn your final badge!

Note that a transcript of all audio is available for download below, and you can always turn on closed-captions on the video settings above.

In this lesson, we'll look at how motivation can be supported in building decision-making in your organization. Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.

Motivation doesn't always have to be a serious subject: let's look now at a few ways to have fun keeping your energy up and building up the team spirit to improve motivation and decision making.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this final teaching lesson on decision making in review, we're bringing together all our learning into a capstone video on how we can grow from everything we've covered thus far!

Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.