Erasmus + Project „THINK FAST, THINK
DECIDE WELL, BE STRONG!” concluded!

“THINK FAST, THINK SLOW, DECIDE WELL, BE STRONG!”  that finished the 1st of November. We received 24 Baltic participants from Latvia and Lithuania. Here you have a summary of what we did. 

During the preparation, each participant organization made its own activities in its country to prepare participants to the exchange and to spoke about the ideas for the activities to do. Baltics watched a movie about Spain culture. We were also going through the application of the project to understand better what we are going to do before and during the exchange. We had also an explanation about what is Youth pass and the different parts of the certificate.

We reflected about what does the name of the Project „Think fast, Think slow, decide well, be strong”. For example in Latvia everybody wrote down what first came up to their mind when hearing a sentence as Think fast, think slow and so on. People had various thoughts about it!

On September 25th our 24 Baltic guests arrived. The first decision making workshop in Madrid was about different competences of decision-making. There were discussed competences, including communication in foreign languages, digital competence, learning to learn and cultural awareness and expression

On Friday, September 26, participants had a very thought provoking meeting with one of Spain's most prominent lawyers – Efrén Díaz. In this hour long talk Efren highlighted the many difficult decisions he has had to make in his career as well as gave the participants tips on how to tackle any difficult decision His talk was centred on 3 stories from his personal experience. After the meeting with the advocate, we had the activity “Responsible decision-making” a video debate based on the movie "Vertical limit". Kristaps had prepared it very well, and the result was quite interesting. Kristaps was animating the debate, which was quite hot: At the end of this activity we understood better the importance of having strong set of values and criteria (“thinking slow”) that allow taking difficult decisions rapidly when necessary.

During the following days we had many other activities. For example, to learn how to make good decisions under time pressure, we took part in an activity called "Paper house building". During the development of a project, there are many situations in which the team should make a decision. Usually, there is not much time, and decisions should be taken quickly. This activity consists in building a little house with just a few tools: some sheets of paper, a pair of scissors, some adhesive, and a pencil. By this activity, we learnt about the importance of listening to all the members of the group, in order to optimize the potential and the talent of each one.

We did also sports and an excursion in the mountains prepared by ourselves. Especially for Baltic participants this was a very interesting moment, because in their homeland there are not such big mountains as in Spain. We had to take care of the logistic of the excursion, and everything went very well.

By the end of the exchange we made a presentation of the project at school El Prado, in Madrid. During the meeting with our mates from the school we told about our trip from its beginning, and also about the possibilities offered by the program Erasmus +.

Back home we prepare the material for the dissemination of the results of the project: a video that Latvians prepared in collaboration with a professional of the field, and a blog that Lithuanians prepared in collaboration with Latvian and Spanish participants. 

Here you can consult the main results of the project: the blog and the video created by the participants about the project and the exchange.

Blog: http://www.decisionmaking2014.blogspot.com

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgFAYsSoS3U



It was really a good experience; we hope we could do it again!!

The project „Think fast, think slow, decide well, be strong!”, Nr. 2014-2-LV02-
KA105-000281, was sponsored by the European Union

Presentation of the project at the
Colegio De Fomento El Prado Madrid

By the end of our trip to Madrid in terms of project "THINK FAST, THINK SLOW, DECIDE WELL, BE STRONG" we have summed what we have done and prepared for presentation at Colegio De Fomento El Prado Madrid. During the meeting with our mates from Colegio we told about our trip from its beginning. 

After a short introduction of countries we came from, we have presented the project in which we are participating. Students were very curious about different activities and workshops we did. The blog that we were preparing at the time and the toolkit that we have showed gained lot of attention. 

We were very happy that our recent experience in decision-making, with new sense of hope and responsibility for decisions we make wherever we are, was needed and kindly greeted.

Paper house. Description of the activity.

During the development of a project, there are many situations in which the team should make a decision. Usually, there is not much time, and decisions should be taken quickly. To learn how to make good decisions under time pressure, we took part in an activity called "Paper house building".

This activity consists in building a little house with just a few tools: some sheets of paper, a pair of scissors, some adhesive, and a pencil. All the teams also received a list of objectives to reach (i.e., the house had to have a balcony, eight windows, one stairwell, etc). Each team had fifteen minutes to achieve the goals.

Our team, composed of Spaniards, Lithuanians, and Latvians, took five minutes to think about the strategy. Several tasks were distributed and all the team began to work.

To design the parts of the paper-house, we needed a great deal of creativity. An unexpected issue was the communication process. In order to make this one easy, we spoke in English and appointed a moderator (Guillermo and Andrew assumed this role).

Other issue was how to choose among several possibilities. For example, each problem had at least two or three possible solutions. The decision making process was very interesting and we learnt a lot with it.

A good way to improve the results was:

 1)  Thinking slowly about the strategy to take.

 2)  Listening to the proposals of all the members of the group.

 3) Defining the tasks of each member of the group. When all of the members have a well-      defined role in the project, the results improve.

 4)Having a group leader who controls the development of the project.

When the time was over, all the teams stopped their work. The jury examined all the teams’ paper houses. At this moment, we found that the results were very different for each team.

The main objective of team Nr. 1 was to achieve all the requests. However, the quality of the results was very good. Team Nr. 2 didn't reach the necessary organization to have a good project. Team Nr. 3 did quite well: in only fifteen minutes they had built a paper house with sufficient design and good structure: the objectives were reached.

Our team (team Nr. 4), made a house which didn't achieved all the requests, but the quality of the construction was extraordinary (excellent designs with a lot of creativity). As a result, the jury gives to our project the victory.

By this activity, we learnt about the importance of listening to all the members of the group, in order to optimize the potential and the talent of each one.

Responsible decision-making: Video debate 
"VERTICAL LIMIT".

On Friday evening (26^th), after the meeting with the advocate, we had the activity  Responsible decision-making: Video debate "Vertical limit". Kristaps had prepared it very well, and the result was quite interesting.

After a brief introduction made by Kristaps, we watched the beginning of the movie (from 0.30 to 6.20 min) in a big screen. In two words, the plot is as follows: while climbing in Monument Valley, siblings Peter (O'Donnell) and Annie Garrett (Tunney) lose their father, Royce (Stuart Wilson). After two falling amateurs leave the family dangling, Royce forces Peter to cut him loose to save Peter and his sister.

Then each participant received a little sheet of paper, where we had to write our name and our evaluation about the decision that was made: to cut the rope. We had to write “+” if we agreed, “-“ if we did not agree and “?” if we did not know really.

Then on the bases of evaluation 3 groups were created. Most of participants were in group  “+”, just 2 in group “-“ (Emanuels and Ritvars) and 5 or 6 in the group of indecision. Then each group reflected 3-5 min to make a group opinion about decision made and the two first teams explained the reasons of their decision, trying to attract the participants without a clear position. As a result of the debate most of them joined the group “-“.

Kristaps was animating the debate, which was quite hot: from one side, there was a logical decision making (better just 1 dying than 3 dying), from another side there was the idea that to save 2 persons you have not the right to provoke directly the dead of someone. Kristaps was asking if the decision would be different if on the top of the rope there was a sick or old person, or if down the rope there were your own mother or girlfriend.

Kristaps also wanted to stress that actors can be seen as a part of our being: in each decision we do there are the three elements: the father as the mind, the sister as the feelings, and the son with the knife as the will with free choice.

At the end of this activity participants understood better the importance of having strong set of values and criteria (“thinking slow”) that allow taking difficult decisions rapidly when necessary. The importance of considering the impact of our decisions in other people as one of the central criteria in the decisions was stressed.

As Emanuels explained us afterwards, we used in this activity several “learning methods”: video fragments analysis, emotional learning, guided debates and learning by positioning ourselves in the debate. It was a very “hot” activity where we learn a good number of things about decision making, really!!

Meeting with prominent Spanish lawyer Efrén Díaz

On Friday, September 26, participants had a very thought provoking meeting with one of Spain's most prominent lawyers – Efrén Díaz. In this hour long talk Efren highlighted the many difficult decisions he has had to make in his career as well as gave the participants tips on how to tackle any difficult decision His talk was centred on 3 stories from his personal experience.

 The first was about his involvement in a case against tech-giant Google in the widely known ''Right to be forgotten'' case· He explained, that his success in this particular case was largely based upon his absolute knowledge of the subject. He stated that in order to succeed you must know your problem inside out and that the decisions should not be made without in-depth knowledge of the subject or based on superficial assumptions. For example, when he had a first meeting with Spanish procurer, American and European advocates from Google, I was clear that they did not know that the enterprise that put the incorrect information about his client in the web had already agreed to retire this information from their website, and that the information was not anymore available there.

The second story he shared with us was about a last minute problem that arose while he was preparing the location for the beatification of Alvaro del Portillo. At ten in the mooring of 26^th he saw by hazard that on e representative of the place was fighting (discussing very hotly) with the worker of the enterprise in charge of opening the access. He went to them and realized that the whole event was in danger because this little discussion, and he asked to the organizers that authorization to take the measures to solve the situation, and this was done in the next two hours!! The moral of this story was that you have to truly care about the projects you are involved in, you must inquire about it. In short, you have to be fully involved in whatever you are doing. He also highlighted that one must have a strong set of moral values in order to make a good decision under pressure.

The final story he chose to share with us was also related to his involvement in the case against Google. The case had gotten a lot of attention and he could have acquired a lot of publicity for himself if he were to have taken the case to a higher court. However, he opted to keep the case at a lower profile. He chose to do this because it was in the interest of his client to receive the least amount of publicity possible. So, the final tip he left us was that sometimes you have to make a decision that is not in your best interests but is the interests of others. All things considered it was a very enlightening talk and I can safely say that I am richer for the experience.. 

Youth pass process: a first approach

In order to facilitate the reflection, Emanuels distributed us randomly in five groups of 6-7 
persons. Each group had to reflect first about one of the key competences of youthpass 
(Communication in the mother tongue, Communication in foreign languages, Mathematical 
competence, digital competence, social and civic competences, cultural expressions, sense of 
initiative and entrepreneurship), and they had to prepare a little oral presentation (in English!!) about how this project is helping ME to develop THIS concrete competence. 

After several minutes, each group chose a “speaker, who was presenting to the other s what 
they found. For some competences it was very easy (for example, expression in foreign 
languages or intercultural competence), but for other competences it was not so obvious (for 
example, for the mathematical competence). 

Anyway, it was a good activity and we could appreciate the very good speaking skills of some 
of the participants such as Edvards from Latvia, Lukass from Lithuania and Nicolas from Spain.

Second project meeting in Latvia: defining the concepts

In the participants´ second meeting in Latvia, on September 13^th,  we thought about what does the name of the Project „Think fast, Think slow, decide well, be strong” really mean so everybody wrote down what first came up to their mind when hearing a sentence as Think fast, think slow and so on. For our surprise people had various thoughts about it and opinions differed. 

Speaking about ¨Think fast¨, participants wrote that sometimes there is not enough time or some competitor may be faster than you. You have not to think too long, you should decide in a given period of time, and think fast as possible to reach the main goal. In life you should be able to read quickly in situations where there is little time. In fact it is about time. Time makes us free, the more time you have the more you can do. If you don't decide fast you might lose a chance. Sometimes you need to react quickly to changing situations because no everyone will wait for you.

The opinions about the part ¨think slow¨ were also quite rich: ¨To think slow is important because it's better to think more than one time¨; ¨never hurry, good decision cannot be made in hurry, it's best to think ahead ¨; ¨Not to precipitate, dedicate necessary time, take into account all that you can. Not let to be guided by emotions.¨. Think slow was also associated with ¨to be sure what you want and what you must to reach¨ and ¨Being able to weigh all the options and chose the right one¨. Other participants stressed ¨Reflection, concentration skills, ask for advice, and define your identity¨, ¨because you need to think correctly¨.

The opinions of ¨decide well¨ were connected with responsibility in choices:  ¨Decide well because your future may depend on it¨, ¨you have to know the importance of decision¨; ¨Decisions change your future, so what goes around comes around¨; ¨decide well because you want to be correct, because wrong choice is a wrong choice; take the right choice¨. And also with a good logic in the decision making: ¨Make decisions on facts: decision should be well founded¨; ¨to decide well is being able to decide based on legitimate criteria rather than making impulse decisions¨.

Finally, the exchange about the part ¨be strong was also very rich. Some respondents said that ¨ this one is most important in my opinion, because you must acknowledge there will be no way back anymore¨; ¨keep on putting into practice the decision that you have made. Decision without action is vane¨; ¨Just do it. You thought of it. Forget your feelings, your mood, do what you have decided¨; ¨It’s important because the whole world has a lot of people who will try do disrespect your plans¨; ¨to be strong in spirit is an advantage without flaws¨. Some respondents associated it with the fact of taking what one think is the right decision without being influenced:  ¨Be strong in every decision¨; ¨Being able to make your own, well-informed decisions thus not being affected as much by others opinion¨; ¨you need to be convinced and to share¨.