Fruitful Decision Making

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If you're not already familiar with the Franklin or Balance Sheet close it's an old sales technique that should be out of favor with today's business decision makers. The story is when Benjamin Franklin had trouble making a decision he would make a written list of all the pros and cons. Doing this would help lead him to the best decision. The gimmick behind it us while there are usually many pros in a sales proposition, a prospect is generally only facing a couple of cons, typically risk and/or affordability. It's a manipulative scheme because it leads a prospect to consider the quantity of items on the pro and con lists as opposed to their importance. One significant risk can easily outweigh a hundred minor advantages.

Like all really great lies, it's appealing because there are truthful elements inside. Putting your thoughts on paper is a powerful method of clarifying thinking. It's use should be encouraged; but with an orientation toward what's important. I'm proposing a modification to the Franklin close we can call the Fruitful close for your personal decisions.

Create a list of what's important to you. This is the really hard part and since it may be time consuming needs to be done in advance. Personally, I started with the Roles I developed from the time management disciplines found in The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Later I found a much more useful list. The logic behind its use was if I made my decisions in alignment with the characteristics of the Creator, the results would be in alignment with Creation - a very desirable result. These characteristics are listed in the Bible in Galatians 5:22 as the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are: love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I've come to see the list as operating from the last item (self-control) backwards to the first as one develops into greater alignment with Creation. With a list of importance established, it's now time to create the Balance Sheet.

In Column One, Titled "Important", write down the elements of your list. Now consider all the alternatives to your decision and make a subsequent column for each with an appropriate label. Assign a weight (I use the numbers 1 to 5) that represents how each alternative might contribute toward each result. There may be no effect in many cases. Large effects should be given higher weights. In the end, one column should outweigh the others.

Test this result. Does it make sense that this alternative really is the most fruitful choice? It may not turn-out that way because something was missed during the first analysis (this is normal). Keep repeating the process. Eventually an alternative emerges that that makes sense and we know why. Now its time to become fruitful.