Deep Dives
This Deep Dive draws from one of the Areas of Competence in the Career Development Manager/Leader Competency Framework. Through reflection, real-world analysis, and practical activities, you’ll explore how this part of the framework shapes your leadership practice.
In human services, choices often come with complexity and nuance. Leaders navigate ambiguity by balancing priorities, adapting to change, and making informed choices even in challenging situations. Whether responding to a crisis, allocating limited resources, or resolving team conflict, the quality of decisions shapes outcomes for clients, staff, and the organization.
Many leaders experience uncertainty when weighing competing factors, or fear making the “wrong” call—especially when client well-being is involved. Others rely on intuition or habit, missing the structured thinking that leads to stronger results, and sometimes decisions happen in isolation, overlooking the value of diverse perspectives.
This resource invites you to build decision-making capacity—your own and your team’s—so choices become thoughtful, inclusive, and action-oriented. It’s about shifting from reactive to reflective, from stuck to strategic.
Your role isn’t to have all the answers—it’s to be the architect of a space where the smartest decisions come to life. When you model thoughtful decision-making, you empower your team to do the same. Over time, this builds a culture of shared accountability, continuous learning, and adaptive leadership.
Bridge the gap between theory and practice with these strategic tools.
Albert Einstein is reported to have said, “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.” This exercise is about looking deeply at the problem—challenging the way you see it to reveal more clarity so you can select solutions effectively. You gather as much information as possible and consider what you believe, feel, and think about the problem.
This quote captures what this step – Clarify the Problem – is about. This step is about looking deeply at the problem, and includes challenging the way you see it in order to reveal more clarity so you can select solutions effectively. In this step you gather as much information as possible, and consider what you believe, feel, and think about the problem. Taking time to gather information, and challenge your own assumptions and beliefs about the problem can redefine the issue and provide avenues to solutions that you may not have considered before. Doing this process with your team also contributes to their learning, strategic thinking, and ability to tackle tough problems on their own.
Use this discussion guide to really clarify the problem and understand the way you interact with the problem before you go on to solve it. You may have heard of the “5 Whys” or “Causal Analysis” approaches to get beyond symptoms and identify root causes; this captures many of the same elements.
Work through the questions below with your team, documenting discussion as you go. Use open-
ended prompts like “What else?” to drive the discussion deeper.
Scenario: Exploring data and feedback on intake experience
After taking time to carefully clarify the problem, take a similar approach to selecting solutions. Avoid rushing to the first solution that comes to mind. Encourage divergent thinking before converging on a solution. Working with your team, ask each staff member to take on a “persona,” and think about the problem from the perspective of that persona. Ensure you give each persona time to think about their perspective and share it with the group so that everyone gets the benefit of their perspective before converging on a decision.
Personas could represent the perspectives and well-being of various interest holders related to your work, such as:
Personas could also include different ways of thinking, for example
Note: If this exercise appeals to you, you may want to learn more about Edward de Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats” as a problem solving and decision making technique.
A structured decision matrix or criteria checklist can assist to evaluate options, give you a clear rationale for the decision that you can share with interest holders, and illustrate how many possible solutions might be workable in the event your first choice doesn’t work out.
Purpose: Evaluate options using weighted criteria to support informed, transparent decision-making.
Assign a score (e.g., 1–5) for each criterion and then measure each option according to the criteria you’ve set. Doing this exercise as a team creates an opportunity to find consensus on both the criteria and the assessment of each option. When you and your team cannot find consensus, that’s generally a good indicator that you need more information. When you complete the decision matrix, add up the total scores for each option to indicate which option ranks highest. If you have more than one option that meets the criteria, then you have a back up plan. This approach will also help you communicate the “why” behind your decisions to interest holders.
Scoring: 1 = Low, 5 = High
Scenario: Choosing between three intake redesign options
Scoring: 1 = Low, 5 = High
Every decision is a chance to build wisdom. When you and your team engage in reflective discussion after a decision has been made and implemented, you foster an environment in which people are safe to discuss challenges and uncertainty, and in which setbacks foster learning. As people learn, they’ll use more effective decision making habits and achieve better outcomes.
Use this decision debrief discussion framework to improve your reflective discussion and build the decision making capacity of your team and thereby your organization’s outcomes.
Purpose: Reflect on the decision-making process to capture lessons and improve future decisions.
Scenario: Reflecting after implementing Option A — add a 15-minute rapport-building segment to intake
