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A variation on the old pros and cons analysis is the Double Pro/Con Analysis. Once you have seen how powerful and easy-to-use this technique is, you will find many uses for it in both your professional and personal life ─ and you will be able to create and make better decisions.
Let me give an example of a decision that my daughter had to make. She very much wanted to complete her Grade 10 piano exam but also wanted to go to Jamaica with me over March break. The deadline for applying to take the exam was March 4. This resulted in Katie having to make a decision because she had only completed one-third of the work needed to successfully take the Grade 10 exam. In order to take her Grade 10 exam, Katie needed to practice for two hours a day. However she was in the last four months of her senior year of high school and was already involved in many extracurricular activities, including the high school musical which meant that a great deal of her time was already committed. On the other hand, if she did not complete her Grade 10 piano at this time, it was unlikely that she would be able to work on it when she entered university. Below are the lists for the pros and cons of working on piano over March break and the pros and cons of going to Jamaica over March break.
Pros and Cons of Working to Complete the Grade 10 Piano Exam Pros
I almost always complete what I started
Feeling of satisfaction from completing my Grade 10 piano
Keeps my options for music open
I don’t want to disappoint my Mom or my piano teacher
If I don’t get my Grade 10 now, it will be very likely that I will never get it because I won’t have the time or interest to work on it when I start university
Cons
I would be disappointed if I didn’t get to go to Jamaica
I missed out on the last trip with my father to Africa when I had mono
I deserve a vacation
I won’t have time to do other things I would like to do in the four months left of my Grade 12 year
Pros and Cons of Going to Jamaica over March Break Pros
I need a break
I could spend quality time with my Dad
I have always wanted to travel south
I like learning about new cultures and seeing/visiting new places
My Dad knows a lot of neat people in Jamaica
I’m tired of working all the time
Cons
I need practice time for Grade 10 piano
I would like to see if I could pass Grade 10 piano after all the work I have done
My mother would be disappointed
I am too tired right now to make a decision so doing nothing is the easiest thing to do
I’m not comfortable flying
There will be other times in the future when I can travel with my Dad and I am sure that he will be doing volunteer work in Jamaica for years to come
At this point, the person doing this analysis crosses out a pro and con of equal value in both columns for each of the pro and con analyses. In the above case if “I need a break” in the pro column is equal to the “I’m not comfortable flying” in the con column, then they are both crossed off. However, if the weightings are not equal and Katie were really terrified of flying, then she might have to cross off two or more of the pros, for example, cross off both “I’m tired of working all the time” and “I need a break” to be able to cross off the con “I’m not comfortable flying.” When you have finished crossing off the pros and cons to the best of your ability for both analyses, you may see that there is a clear preference for one of the options. In the above case, it became clear to me that there was another option that we had not considered and that option was to see if Katie could spend some time practicing her piano in Jamaica. I called around to various hotels and found out that some of the hotels did not have a piano. One hotel had a piano but they would not let anyone except their resident pianist use their piano. However, when I talked to the sales department at the Jamaican Pegasus Hotel I hit gold. They had two pianos. There was no problem if Katie wanted to practice for two hours a day. If the piano was in a room or near a room where there was a conference going on, they would move the piano to somewhere where Katie could practice. I held my breath and then asked what the charge would be ─ the answer: “No Charge”. And the Pegasus is one of the nicest hotels with one of the largest and most beautiful swimming pools on the island. The idea of Katie being able to practice the piano in Jamaica would never have occurred to me if we had not done the double pro/con analysis.
