Decision Units (DUs) – Independent and Dependent

Karina and Marc (my two children) have their birthday on the same day in May, although they were born four years apart. My Father’s birthday is five days before. Family members wanted to know when we were having the 3-way birthday party this weekend, but it was hard to pick a day and time. Lindy (my wife) and I usually have no trouble agreeing so in the past we would make a single decision for the whole family – in essence we are a single decision unit (DU). But now that Karina and Marc have grown up, they make their own decisions – in essence they have become Independent Decision Units (IDU) – which means our former single family DU is now three DUs. And my parents-in-law live in an adjacent part of New House – so that was another IDU, for a total 4 IDUs. My Sister-in-law and her family planned to come, as did my Mother, and of course my Father – three more DUs. But in this case I would say that these three DUs were dependent DUs (DDU) for this decision – they had little ability to set a date, but could give input and after the primary decision was made could then decide whether they were going to come or not.
Finally a decision was made, but with 4 IDUs and 3 DDUs involved it took time; the party was on Sunday. But at the last minute one of my nephews became sick and my Sister-in-law’s family could not come – an example of an unplanned decision breaking event (DBE). Sometimes I don’t think business decisions are any harder than family decisions…