Hasty Decisions

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I was instructing on a Survival Course when one group made a hasty decision to walk past a water hole without filling their bottles. It was understandable, the waterhole was smelly and murky and they were certain a windmill lay just ahead. But they were wandering lost for several hours. They ran out of water before they found the ‘windmill’, which turned out to be a gate. They had misread the map symbols. Dehydration compounded fatigue - sapping energy and seeding indecision. They spent a hard, dry night filled with anxiety before stumbling upon a water hole the next day. Topping up when they had the chance would have taken the pressure right off. For the rest of their walk, they paused anytime they passed a potential resource and made a conscious decision to use or bypass it. 

This is a great example of rapid feedback in survival scenarios. Similar patterns play out at work when people:

  • act without all the information,

  • get defensive or aggressive about their point of view,

  • are not on the same page, resulting in re-doing work, wasting time, resources and energy, and/or

  • think they have clearly communicated to each other, but are actually mistaking 'windmills' for 'gates'. 

When have hasty decisions not worked well for you? 

How can you build more conscious decision making into your work?

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