Workshop: You Make the Call: Applying Decision Quality to a High Stakes Decision in Professional Football

Mount Elbert B

Those who coach professional sports, be it football or otherwise, likely understand better than most the distinction between a good decision and a good outcome. These individuals are forced to make many decisions during a game, often in a matter of seconds, and the outcome of their decisions are immediately visible to all. If they make a risky decision and it succeeds, they are hailed as a genius. Conversely, failure often brings with it swift and unrelenting criticism. Given this harsh reality, it seems many coaches – and particularly the most successful ones – soon realize the only thing they can control is the process that precedes and underlies those split-second choices.

Following a brief overview of the six elements of Decision Quality (DQ) and how to use them to measure the quality of any decision, participants will practice applying what they learn via a fun and interactive football-based case study. Working in small teams with a facilitator, participants will adopt the perspective of a head coach facing a high-stakes game-winning decision.

While we aren’t suggesting that pro-football coaches and their staff utilize DQ to guide them in their play-calling per se, participants in this workshop will undoubtedly see many parallels between the situation presented in the case study and the high-stakes, pressure-filled decisions that confront executives in other domains on a daily basis.

The target market for this workshop includes:

  • Decision-makers and other leaders who are interested in improving the state of decision-making in their respective organizations but who are unfamiliar with Decision Quality
  • Those who wish to practice applying Decision Quality with colleagues in a safe, fun, and supportive learning environment
  • Experienced Decision Professionals looking for new and innovative ways to introduce Decision Quality to others

Note: An in-depth understanding of the game of American Football is not required.

(Workshop not included in conference registration. Please email or contact hilda at decisionprofessionals dot com to sign up — this workshop still has some spots open.)