GRADE
Gather - information
Review - information
Analyse - alternatives
Decide
Evaluate Outcome of action
This is similar to DECIDE (and others 5D, OODA), which aid understanding of the decision making process. However, current theories suggest that this formal process applies only to ‘creative’ decisions where knowledge based behaviour is required – like classical, analytical problem solving.
It is more likely that aviators use a naturalistic decision process – recognition primed decisions, where experience and situation assessment are important factors.
GRADE etc are useful for an initial explanation of the content and cyclic decision making process, but their continued use in recurrent CRM (and particularly LOFT) reduce opportunities to gain experience by practicing situation assessment and appropriate debriefing to embed what has been experienced in memory.
Refs:
Flight safety Australia, March-April 2001
Naturalistic Decision Making.
Problem Solving and Decision Making: Consideration of Individual Differences
Taking Stock of Naturalistic Decision Making.
Pilot Decision Making.