Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 2, Session 3: Making Decisions | Page 45 of 127
- Divide participants into groups of three and distribute a copy of Handout 2: PAUSE for Better Decisions
to each person. Say:
“I would like you to write your decision at the top of the page.” (If participants cannot think of a
decision for themselves, you can suggest that they use an example from Handout 3.)
- When participants have all written something, ask them to exchange their papers within their own
group so each participant has the paper of a different person. Say:
“Look at the new paper you have. The next step of PAUSE is to Ask what all the options might be. Please
look at your new paper and list at least three options that someone could do for the decision written at
the top of the page.”
- Allow a few moments so participants can respond. Then ask them to exchange their papers once again
and say:
“With this new paper, please read the decision and the options. Then complete the third step of PAUSE,
Understand. Look at the possible choices and try to guess what will happen as a result. Take a few
moments to write some ideas.”
- This will take more time so allow three to five minutes for people to write ideas, then say:
“Return the papers to their owners. When you get your own paper, read through everything and use
the next step of PAUSE to Select an option. Then talk about your paper with the other members of your
small group. You can use some of these questions:
Which option did you choose and why?
How helpful was it to get ideas about the steps in PAUSE from friends?
Did you use your Head, Heart, Hands, or Hope in choosing from among the options?
How and when will you review your decision?” (This fits the “E” of PAUSE, Evaluate the
outcome.)
- After participants have had a chance for these conversations, you can follow up with a short discussion
with the whole group using these questions:
What similarities are there among the situations for decision making chosen by the members of
your group?
How confident do you feel about using PAUSE in other situations?
Note: Completion of “When to PAUSE” is an assessment of Learning Objective 1.
