Current e-Journal
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September 29, 2026
So many options! How will you decide?
In this week’s Systems Change Newsletter…
- Invitations and Announcements
- Catalytic Thinking Exercise: So many options! How will you decide?
- Resources to Further Your Practice
Invitations & Announcements:
2 New Webinars!
Remember: Tuition for all our webinars is pay-what-you-can. No one will be turned away!
- BOARDS: Strengthening your board in uncertain times Info is here…
- CONSULTANTS: Help your clients find more resources (and find more resources to grow your business! Info is here…
For U.S. Changemakers:
The U.S. Census Bureau is proposing changes that will ignore the existence of millions of U.S. residents. The results for your community will be devastating, as federal funds and congressional district maps are based on those population numbers. The National Council of Nonprofits is fighting this proposal. You can learn more and take action with a simple signature at this link…
Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
So many options! How will you decide?
When life hands you several great ideas to pursue, how do you know which ones to prioritize?
We all face this dilemma, whether in our work lives or our personal lives – a list of projects or ideas that can feel overwhelming. That dilemma is especially notable at the end of a planning session, when you’ve generated more ideas than you could accomplish in a lifetime.
Without a logical system for determining where to commit our time and other resources, those decisions can feel like throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks.
- You may base the decision on what is easily fundable.
- Or you may choose projects that are an extension of something you’re already doing.
- You may follow whatever is suggested by a person in authority. Or the loudest voice.
- Or this scenario: Someone suggests an idea, and the group goes so far down the rabbit hole of that one idea that it de facto becomes the only choice.
None of these scenarios leads to sound decisions made with confidence by the whole group. From there, it is not unusual for participants to leave feeling dissatisfied, scattered, manipulated, or all the above.
This default approach to decision-making is the result of a whole series of invisible and unspoken assumptions. The key to making those decisions with confidence is therefore to bring those invisible assumptions into the light.
And the simplest tool we have found for shedding that light is a decision-making matrix.
Try this
A matrix takes the guesswork out of decision-making by ensuring that all important factors are being considered.
And it all starts by asking these simple questions:
What is important to consider as we make this decision?
What factors will we base our decision on?
Groups rarely ask these questions. Instead, we assume we are all thinking the same thing (Spoiler Alert: We are rarely thinking the same thing). We then jump into trying to make the decision without ever discussing how we will know if that decision is the right one.
Discussing your criteria for decision-making makes all those invisible issues visible. Those issues might include the amount of staff time an effort will require, or the length of time it will take to come to fruition. They might include the need to do a year’s worth of research, or perhaps the need for up-front cash investment.
By determining up front what your decision will be based upon, you will be inviting into the room the wisdom and life experience of everyone involved. An emotion-based decision may suddenly become a logic-based decision. Or a small internal team problem may come to light as a genuine stumbling block for moving forward.
At Creating the Future, we use a decision-making matrix to help us identify those important criteria, and to rank each idea against those criteria. This short video will show you what that looks like in practice, with a real-world example.
For example, if one of your decision-making criteria is “How much staff time will it take?” you can ask, “Will Project A require a lot of staff time, or a little? How about Projects B and C?” And you can rank them against each other. The end result will be a detailed picture of what is at the heart of your decision.
Rooted in the question that kicks off the whole Catalytic Thinking framework, the result will be yet another form of radical inclusion. By making the invisible visible, everyone’s concerns will be heard. And you will have the best chance of making a decision rooted in the wisdom of everyone involved.
- WATCH: To see what it looks like to craft a decision-making matrix, this short video shows a real-world example.
- READ: The most important decision in these uncertain times is what to plan for – today’s hard times or tomorrow’s future. In this article, Hildy shows how to do BOTH. Read it here…
- TOOL: When you have a binary decision to make – only two options, this vs. that - this tool is the BEST. Try it here…
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