<\/p>
Medical professionals commonly use this model to help them to make informed decisions about their patients’ outcomes. So how can it help the rest of us in our business or personal lives?<\/p>
In our scenario, Jeb listens as Jayla explains the deal that’s on the table.<\/p>
Together, they own a small, independent training company based in Minnesota, which they’ve built from scratch. Although the business has done OK financially, it’s also had its ups and downs. Now, they’ve received a substantial offer from the state’s biggest training provider \u2013 their long-term rival \u2013 to buy them out.<\/p>
“It does sound generous,” says Jeb, “But isn’t there a danger that we’ll disappear as a brand? That everything you and I have worked for, all we’ve built up, will disappear?”<\/p>
“That’s what I want you to work out,” Jayla says.<\/p>
Jeb can’t even begin to comprehend how he’s going to make this potentially life-altering decision. A tool known as BRAIN could be the answer to his problem.<\/p>
In this article, we’ll explore the meaning of BRAIN, and of its variants, BRAN and BRAND. We’ll also examine how you can adapt it to any workplace, and assess its advantages and disadvantages.<\/p>\n\n
BRAIN* and its variants BRAN and BRAND are decision-making tools used by midwives, nurses, doctors, and patients to help them to make careful and considered choices in non-emergency situations.<\/p>
BRAIN helps people to work through problems systematically, using the following acronym:<\/p>
You may wish to use the BRAN or BRAND variations, depending on the factors that you need to consider when making your decision.<\/p>
If, for instance, you want to take a more objective approach, you can apply the BRAN framework. This excludes your personal preference or “gut feeling,” and can be particularly helpful if you want to remain unbiased when you make your decision.<\/p>
The other variation, BRAND, also omits the Intuition or Implications step but includes an extra one \u2013 D<\/strong>ecision. This additional factor prompts you to make a final choice, based on the points that you have covered during the decision-making process.<\/p>\n\n Although originally developed for medical practitioners, BRAIN, BRAN and BRAND can easily apply to all sorts of decisions at work.<\/p> You can use it to make organizational decisions, such as that faced by Jeb and Jayla, or more personal decisions, such as whether to take a new job or change career.<\/p> So how do you apply the tool to decision making in the workplace? Let’s return to our example.<\/p> Jeb wants to assess whether the deal to buy out his and Jayla’s company really stacks up. He also wants to think about whether this is an offer that they actually need<\/strong> or, indeed, want<\/strong> to accept.<\/p> He can work through the problem systematically using the BRAIN, BRAN or BRAND framework, to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n\n The I<\/strong>ntuition element of the decision-making process will likely be slightly more complicated than the other sections. This is because it requires you to think about how you feel<\/strong> about the choice that you are making. Take some time for self-reflection<\/a> , to gauge your true feelings about the issue.<\/p><\/div><\/div> <\/p>\n\n BRAIN, BRAN and BRAND provide easy-to-remember frameworks that you can use to assess a decision’s opportunities, threats and challenges<\/a> systematically.<\/p> The tool’s simplicity and flexibility means that it can be adapted to a variety of different situations \u2013 from organizational, management and team issues to personal dilemmas.<\/p> The questions that it encourages you to ask will likely help you to evaluate a decision both objectively and subjectively<\/a> , giving you a more rounded perspective on it.<\/p> A particular focus is given to “gut instinct” or intuition \u2013 a factor that is less likely to be included in more formal analytical tools, but one that can be just as important as an objective evaluation. After all, your instinct is a product of your experience, knowledge and expertise, so it’s important that you trust what your gut is telling you as well as the raw data.<\/p> Analyzing the value of doing nothing can also be a potentially useful counterpoint to other decision-making models, which assume that every challenge must result in some action being taken, irrespective of how effective that action is.<\/p> At the same time, the tool’s simplicity means that you can risk overgeneralizing a problem. The tool was originally designed to help medical professionals and their patients to make decisions quickly. However, the problem that you are facing may require you to undertake a more in-depth analysis or gather more information<\/a> before you make a final decision.<\/p> You should also take care when you come to assess the N<\/strong>eed Time or N<\/strong>othing section. Although doing nothing might indeed be the best decision to make in some cases, you’ll need to take care to ensure that it won’t result in you delaying a decision or missing out on a valuable opportunity.<\/p> If you feel that further analysis is required after you have worked through the BRAIN, BRAN and BRAND framework, you may want to use a more in-depth decision-making tool such as ORAPAPA<\/a> , The 8D Problem-Solving model<\/a>, or the Simplex Process<\/a> .Or, if you’re under pressure and need to make a decision quickly, you might like to try using the TDODAR<\/a> model.<\/p><\/div><\/div> <\/p> BRAIN and its variants BRAN and BRAND are decision-making tools commonly used by medical professionals to help patients to make informed decisions about their care. However, its simplicity and flexibility mean that it can also be easily adapted for decision making in the workplace.BRAIN, BRAN and BRAND stand for:<\/p> Unlike other, more formal decision-making tools, BRAIN asks you to look at problems both objectively and subjectively, giving you a more rounded perspective of the issue. However, be aware that you should use the tool with care, as its simplicity can mean that you run the risk of overgeneralizing problems or avoiding taking action.<\/p><\/div><\/div> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Medical professionals make vital decisions using the BRAIN framework, and variants BRAN and BRAND. Use it at work to make informed and intuitive decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"product-content-category":[7154],"product-content-type":[2580],"reading-time":[5119],"class_list":["post-57572","product-content","type-product-content","status-publish","hentry","product-content-category-decision-making-models","product-content-type-article","reading-time-10-minutes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBRAIN, BRAN and BRAND in the Workplace<\/h2>\n\n
Benefits<\/h3>\n\n
Risks<\/h3>\n\n
Alternatives<\/h3>\n\n
Intuition or Implications<\/h3>\n\n
Tip: <\/h4>\n\n
Need Time or Nothing<\/h3>\n\n
Decision<\/h3>\n\n
Advantages and Disadvantages<\/h2>\n\n
Tip: <\/h4>\n\n
Key Points <\/h4>\n\n