I have been teaching a class in critical thinking and decision-making.  I feel honored to work with students on such an esoteric subject.  My students have to write papers about their preferred decision-making model, such as SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), a nine-step decision-model, force field analysis, and the notorious six hats technique.

Did you know that the internationally famous child's game, Rock, Paper, Scissors is a decision model? When faced with an important decision, the stakeholders can agree to express differing choices, and abide by the resolution of the game.  One, two, three - choose!  The world association of Rochambeau enthusiasts (yes, there is an association, and yes, an alternate name for the method has a fancy French moniker) has national and international championships.  Last summer a Massachusetts man won the US Championship and $50,000 in Las Vegas (where else?).  If you don't want to travel to Vegas, you can download an iPhone app that will free up your hands from the strenuous work of casting a rock.

If my students choose to write about Rock, Paper, Scissors, I hope they will describe the disadvantages of this decision-model.  Otherwise, I reserve the right to cast their grade with a simple shake-shake-shake.