Using Grid Analysis in Decision Making

This blog is largely about making choices.  Because nearly everyone has difficulty making choices at some time, I decided to write a post about using Grid Analysis as a decision-making tool. 

The situation:  On 30 October 2009, due to a combination of family obligations, health problems, and academic issues, I suspended my work on a doctorate in clinical psychology.  It had been some time since I had been able to devote myself full-time to my research project, and I hoped that a year's formal suspension would provide me with perspective and relieve feelings of guilt and anxiety related to my academic career.  The end of that year (October 2010) found our family in the midst of fulfilling a long-desired goal:  selling our house in the Auckland area and buying a lifestyle block in the New Zealand countryside.  I spoke with the program director and my research supervisor and told them I would be in touch once we were settled into our new home.  In March 2011, I received a notice that another 6-monthly report regarding the status of my research project was due.  I spent several weeks thinking about the unresolved academic issues related to the project, then outlined a revised project complete with timeline and research aims.  As I corresponded with my supervisors, I learned that my extended suspension of study and change of focus meant I would need to resign from the clinical program, recruit another supervisor with experience in qualitative research techniques, and pursue either a PhD or a Masters level research project:  any clinical qualification I wished to pursue would be delayed until after completion of the disseration.  Throughout this process, I noticed increased symptoms of anxiety, including difficulty sleeping, muscle tension, increased worry, and a migraine headache.  After a bit of self-reflection, I determined that it was time to reassess my academic goals. 

I have previously recommended to clients facing difficult decisions that they use a grid analysis as an aid.  Grid analysis can be useful with decisions in which there are a number of factors that deserve consideration.  I find the download and instructions available from Mind Tools to be particularly helpful.

First, I brainstormed a bit and then identified four viable options regarding my future academic career:

1. Upon withdrawal from the clinical psychology program, pursue an application to continue my research as a PhD project.
2. Take a step back and pursue a Masters degree.
3. Forget academics and get a practical degree that would lead to a mental health registration, such as a Diploma in Counselling.
4. Set aside my academic career in a more permanent way.

 The second step was to identify the most important factors related to the decision.  These factors are highly personalized to each individual and situation.  In this instance, I selected the following factors as being most important to or relevant for the decision I was making:

• future earnings potential,
• impact for my family,
• time to work on other projects and goals, and
• impact on my self-esteem.

As a third step, I assigned a number from 0-5 (0 = poor and 5 = very good) for each option with respect to its impact on each factor.  Here is the partially completed Grid Analysis following Step 3:

Factors	Future Earnings	Family	Other Projects	Self-Esteem	Total
Factor Weights	-	-	-	-	-
PhD	5	1	0	4	-
MA	3	0	0	0	-
DipCouns	2	2	3	2	-
Stop	2	4	4	3	-

For the Future Earnings factor, I felt that a PhD would be most beneficial and the Masters less so.  I felt that a Diploma in Counselling would make no difference to future earnings when compared to leaving school and pursuing self-employment opportunities. 

In terms of the impact on my family (aside from the financial gains included in the Future Earnings factor), the PhD would be advantageous in terms of providing a model of academic success for our children, but this benefit was offset by the tremendous investment of time necessary to complete my research and writing.  The Masters would require a near-equal amount of time without the benefit of providing my children with a model of an adult finishing what was started.  Pursuing a counselling diploma would allow me to study on a part-time basis and for a much shorter period of time.  Finally, leaving school would provide me with the flexibility to free up my time to support my daughter in her home schooling and upcoming university applications; go on family outings; take on more daily responsibilities such as shopping, preparing dinner, and cleaning; and just be available for those impromptu talks.

The time constraints of both the PhD and the Masters led to 0 ratings in the Other Projects column, while the counselling diploma option garnered a 3 because it could be completed on a part-time basis.  I rated Leaving School as a 4 because a decision not to pursue further educational qualifications may limit my credentials for some writing projects I am interested in pursuing.

In terms of impacting my self-esteem, I rated the PhD at a 4 rather than a 5 because the benefits would be offset by certain activation of negative core beliefs such as "I am a bad mother" and "I am selfish."  The Masters would do little to boost my self-esteem and would result in activation of beliefs like "I'm not good enough."  I rated the counselling diploma as a 2 because it would allow me to achieve a long-time goal of working in the mental health field.  Because leaving school would enable me to devote time to a wide variety of other projects that are important to me, I rated this at 3.

Proceeding to Step 4, I rated the importance of each factor, with 0 being not important to 5 being very important.

Factors	Future Earnings	Family	Other Projects	Self-Esteem	Total
Factor Weights	3	5	4	2	-
PhD	5	1	0	4	-
MA	3	0	0	0	-
DipCouns	2	2	3	2	-
Stop	2	4	4	3	-

The final step involves some math.  The weight for each factor is multiplied by the impact score for each option, and these are added together to arrive at a total score.  For example, the PhD option score = (3 x 5) + (5 x 1) + (4 x 0) + (2 x 4) = 28.

Factors	Future Earnings	Family	Other Projects	Self-Esteem	Total
Factor Weights	3	5	4	2	-
PhD	5	1	0	4	28
MA	3	0	0	0	9
DipCouns	2	2	3	2	32
Stop	2	4	4	3	48

Given my current value ratings of factors that are important to me, leaving school and devoting more time to family and other projects outweighs whatever positive impact that continuing my academic career might have on my self-esteem and future earnings.

I have submitted my formal withdrawal from the Doctorate of Clinical Psychology program.  I have yet to talk with my supervisors to let them know that, at this time, I will not be pursuing further academic research.  But the headache has faded, as they always do.  I feel optimistic about the future.  I expect to experience intermittent regrets about not continuing an academic career, particularly because I will miss academic writing.  But I know that I have a capacity for self-reflection and an arsenal of tools that can assist me in any number of difficult circumstances.  I'm looking forward to working on other projects--redecorating our new home, landscaping, starting on a huge kitchen garden, returning to volunteer work for a literacy program, and writing posts like this one.  I hope to spend time with my family without being preoccupied with thoughts about a research project and worries that I'm not good enough.  I feel free.

Special acknowledgements:  It would have taken me a lot longer to re-learn HTML table construction if I hadn't come across this post by Isaac Yasser.  Thanks, Isaac!  I again want to recommend a click over to Mind Tools for a browse through their fabulous collection of self-management articles.

Life's Too Short to Read Bad Books: April 2011

These are the books I read in April 2011.  I offer these short reviews to help you decide what to put on your nightstand.

The Collectors (A Camel Club Mystery)
David Baldacci

What do the deaths of the Speaker of the House and a curator at the Library of Congress have in common?  Misrepresented by Library Journal as one of the best thrillers of 2006, this novel leads the members of the Camel Club to discoveries of illicit affairs, disappearing ink, and treason in their search for the answer.  Along they way, they join forces with a woman hiding from a sociopathic casino owner.  I give this 5 out of 10 stars, but only because the writing isn't atrocious and the characters are interesting.


Darkmans
Nicola Barker

Be prepared for a difficult ride if you decide to heft this 838-page exploration of history as a malevolent prankster infiltrating our present lives.  This theme is personified in John Scoggin, the medieval court jester who takes possession of a number of the book's characters, including a narcoleptic security guard and an estranged father and son living in the same house.  Add an art forger, an unscrupulous builder, a precocious 5-year-old engaged in the chronological construction of a French village, a Kurd with a lettuce phobia, a stolen paralyzed dog (complete with mobility cart) to the cast and it becomes clear that this is a comedy.  This book earned Barker the 2008 Hawthornden Prize and a place on the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist.  I award this 7 out of 10 stars:  the plotting is difficult and the characters unlikeable, but the language is exquisite.


Matter (The Culture Series)
Iain M. Banks

Space opera meets feudal court intrigue in the eighth installment of Banks' Culture series.  The reader follows Prince Ferbin and his servant Holse (think Frodo and Sam) as they journey from their civilization's appointed level on an artificial world in search of Ferbin's sister.  He seeks her assistance in avenging their father's assassination.  Djan's position as a black-ops Special Circumstances agent for the Culture makes her particularly suited for the task.  This sets the stage for a clash between races of the technologically advanced Culture as they manipulate more primitive societies to advance their own inscrutable ends.  This novel was short-listed for the 2009 Prometheus Award and Locus Award.  My rating:  6 stars out of a possible 10.


The Secret Scripture
Sebastian Barry

In this lyrical novel, 100-year-old Roseanne McNulty composes her memoirs and hides the pages beneath the floorboards of her room in the asylum where she has lived for the last half-century.  The asylum is slated for demolition, and psychiatrist Dr. Grene must determine which of his patients can be released into the community and those who should be transferred to a new, smaller, facility.  His observations as he seeks to uncover the circumstances of Roseanne's incarceration serve as a counterpoint to her fragmented reconstructions.  Barry explores themes of love, prejudice, family, and the subjective nature of memory against a backdrop of 50 years of Irish social and political history.  Short-listed for the 2008 Man Booker Prize and winner of the 2008 Costa Book Award, I rate this book a perfect 10.


Our Horses in Egypt
Rosalind Belben

World War I widow Griselda Romney begins a quest for her horse Philomena, one of thousands of English horses requisitioned into service by the War Office and then sold into service to spare the expense of transport home.  One strand of narrative follows Griselda as she travels from England to Cairo with young daughter and nanny in tow; the other presents Philomena's war experience.  Despite the dense technical horse-related lingo and wartime abbreviations, I was gripped by Philomena's experiences of hardship and companionship.  I found Griselda's narcissistic character lacking in compassion (except for horses) and any desire to understand the world around her.  I rate this winner of the 2008 James Tait Black Prize for Fiction at 7 out of 10 stars.


City of Thieves
David Benioff

Rather than being executed for looting the body of a German paratrooper, 17-year-old Lev is tasked with the quest of locating a dozen eggs so a colonel's daughter can have a proper cake for her wedding.  This is a difficult mission as the residents of Leningrad are under siege and reduced to eating book paste, sawdust-filled bread, and each other.  I am not going to give away any more than that because I loved this book:  it has friendship and pain, romance and adventure--an ALA Notable Book for 2009 and another perfect 10. 

Two in one month--lucky me!

The Burden of Defending Society

Conway, Simon.  (2010).  A Loyal Spy.  London:  Hodder & Stoughton.

A fictional framework for geopolitical commentary on the 21st-century military-industrial complex:   capitalism requires privatization, corporations require profit rather than loyalty.  And if profits can be increased through belief in apocryphal mythology and the duty of true believers to nurture the conditions of a prophesied apocalypse, so much the better.  

"They've convinced themselves that they're on the side of the angels and everybody else is a fool."

"Even as we speak, the day-to-day burden of defending society against the threat of conflict is being transferred to the private sector."

"The day-to-day burden of defending society is now too big for the state to handle alone."

"Life has become more controversial; controvery is more violent; the unintelligent are perverting science into a new form of superstition.  For science read security and they could be talking about the present day."

"We have to terrify them to make them agree to what is necessary for the protection of their freedoms."

"We're going to get rich beyond our wildest dreams....The government doesn't have enough resources of their own to cope.  They're going to need our help.... We're going to provide the protection necessary to get the infrastructure of society up and running again....We'll be heroes."

Very little in the way of explanations for how we arrived at this point, other than utter stupidity and distraction, or alternatives.

"He had come to the conclusion that intelligence was an attribute of individuals and that groups--clans, tribes, nations--were intelligent in inverse proportion to their size and influence:  the bigger the stupider, the stronger the dumber."

"If she had not been so headstrong as a child, so heedless of the consequences of her actions, she might have achieved some semblance of contentment."

"We must not let terrifying threats cause us to degrade what is valuable in our society."

Recently Read

Sometimes the choices I make are as simple as what book to read next....

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
Margaret Atwood

If you remove elements of divine intervention and the supernatural from The Iliad or The Odyssey, you're left with men behaving badly. Atwood applies this treatment to the tale of Penelope. We are left with a woman's life, a woman who dedicated her time on earth to being an ideal daughter, wife, and mother. She speaks to us now from her timeless existence in the underworld, and her voice is bitter and lonely. I thought this was brilliantly done, the social commentary as sharp as that of The Handmaid's Tale when it was published 25 years ago.


Winterton Blue: A Novel
Trezza Azzopardi

Highly recommended! The themes are as old as any story we have shared with each other: boy meets girl, the quest. The writing is beautiful. Here's a taste: "It was a most particular cruelty that he would remember the look on his mother's face when she saw which son was spared." To all of my DClin friends who are looking for another way to treat yourselves after getting those theses finished, let this be one of them.


Wild Inferno (A WILD Mystery)
Sandi Ault

Too much dialog about fighting wildfires that should have been narrative. Much like the debut, descriptions of emotional scenes were flat, trite, and should have been deleted if she can't make them better. I read this book because it was on the Best Books of 2008 for both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. Shame on them.

Sarah's 15th Birthday

BelovEd let Sarah open her presents a day early because he wanted to give her time to "play" with her camera.  I would have had no problem letting her open it in the morning and then have to go to school.  He's such a softy.

Today after school, I'm taking her to sit the written exam for her New Zealand driving learner's permit.  That will be the moment I realize she's actually turned 15.  She makes me smile, proud, and warms my heart.

Until then, major house cleaning in advance of her party on Saturday.