Among the most important of all the decisions the world's people will ever make are their decisions about how to make decisions, because their decisions about how to make decisions will strongly influence all the other decisions they will ever make. Furthermore, human performance — including organizational performance — is a decisionmaking process. Therefore, by improving the way they make decisions, the world's people will be able to make substantial improvements in both individual and organizational performance. And this will improve their quality of life.

The workshops offered through the Institute for Decision Innovations provide — to individuals, families, organizations, and communities — the ability to skillfully use an exciting new way to make decisions, called Choosing By Advantages, or CBA. Also, decisionmakers are encouraged to read The Choosing By Advantages Decisionmaking System, by Jim Suhr, before or after attending one or more of the CBA workshops. This book is especially valuable for architects, engineers, counselors, consultants, elected officials, leaders in organizations, and other professional decisionmakers.

Compared with the methods in common use today — including such methods as Choosing By Advantages and Disadvantages, the pros and cons methods, the so-called Rational Methods, and others — the CBA methods are simpler and faster, and they produce better decisions. Those who learn and apply the CBA definitions, principles, models, and methods are able to significantly improve the quality of their lives and the lives of others by improving the quality of their decisions.

Because CBA helps good decisionmakers become excellent and excellent decisionmakers even better, more and more individuals, families, and organizations are learning and using the CBA methods. For example, CBA is being used in several government agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, and others. As another example, it was successfully used by an interdisciplinary decisionmaking team — with representatives from the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, land developers, government agencies, and others — to select a highway location for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

What is very exciting is that CBA strengthens interpersonal relationships in families, as well as in business organizations and government agencies. CBA is a major breakthrough in the art of decisionmaking.