March 12, 2025 • 20 mins
When faced with mounting pressure to make quick decisions, how do you ensure your ethics don't get left behind? This fascinating deep dive explores the neuroscience behind decision-making speed and ethical choices, revealing why our brains tend toward self-interest when we're rushed.
Drawing from the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership's research, we unpack evidence showing that honesty requires both time and clarity. Through compelling examples like Jeff Bezos's "70% information rule" and the Marine Corps' decision-making framework, we discover practical strategies for maintaining moral standards in high-velocity environments.
The research is striking - lab studies demonstrate that participants with little time consistently make more unethical choices than those given space to reflect. Even a simple three-second pause dramatically improves outcomes in negotiations and ethical dilemmas. We explore four powerful techniques to protect your values: gathering the right information (not all information), creating deliberate speed bumps in decision processes, establishing crystal-clear ethical guidelines, and making space for restorative rituals that combat the isolation and threat response triggered by time pressure.
Whether you're leading a team through complex decisions or simply trying to navigate your own ethical challenges at work, these evidence-backed approaches will help you maintain integrity without sacrificing momentum. Take a walk around the block, apply Occam's Razor to simplify complex problems, and remember - good decisions, like good leadership, require appropriate time. Your future self (and organization) will thank you for the investment.
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, hello and welcome to our podcast, success
Secrets and Stories.
I'm your host, john Wondolowski, and I'm here with my co-host
and friend.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Greg Powell, greg, hey everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah.
So I wanted to talk today aboutsomething I saw in the Notre
Dame Deloitte Center for EthicalLeadership, and the article was
called Do the Right Thing TakesTime.
What if you don't have it?
Implying time.
It's an article from October16th 2024 by Brett Beasley and
(00:55):
it started off with aninteresting graphic.
I'm just going to go over thegraphic, because this kind of
sets the tone.
They have their title and theyhave from the research center.
Each day you face pressure tomake a high velocity decision.
Here's how to make sure youdon't leave your values behind.
(01:17):
So I have four points and we'regoing to discuss it in a little
bit more detail.
One is gather the rightinformation.
Marines speak of a 70% solution.
They decide that 70% of theinformation that you make you
can make a good decision.
Making 70% matters ensures thatyou have at least an ethical or
(01:42):
you have a strategic approach.
Two create speed bumps.
Build in a cooling off periodfor decision-making processes to
provide extra time to considerethical challenges that might
arise.
And then number three Greg,thanks John.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Be clear.
When we're in a rush, it's easyto lose sight of the rules that
are meant to guide us to do theright thing.
If you make the moral norms andconsequences for bad behavior
as clear and accessible aspossible, employees will be less
likely to ignore them whenmaking quick decisions.
Create space for rituals andplayfulness.
(02:26):
Time pressure makes us feelthreatened and isolated.
Personal rituals that help usfeel calm and collected can help
us guard against those feelings.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And then the article moves on to the concept of you
will make 10,000 decisions todayWell, not really 10,000, but in
that number Some of them willbe relatively unimportant.
One study found, for example,that each day we make
approximately 200 choices ofwhat we are going to eat and
(02:59):
drink.
Many leaders try to avoid thatdecision fatigue by limiting the
number of insignificant choicesthey have to make.
They brought up a wonderfulexample of Steve Jobs, who wore
the same outfit, and I foundthis wonderful graphic that he
was wearing blue jeans, a blackturtleneck shirt from 1998 to
(03:20):
2010.
It was a wonderful example ofhe did not want to deal with
those decisions.
Those were done.
He had other decisions to makefor the day.
Another example was Bill Gates,who had no idea how much it
cost to buy a bag of Doritochips.
(03:41):
His guess was it was $22 a bagbag of Dorito chips.
His guess was it was $22 a bag.
So the important part aboutmaking decisions and
understanding the things thatare associated with it is time
and ethics.
So in order to try to kind ofhone in on this concept, they
went on in the article to saybut even when they stay laser
(04:03):
focused in terms of thesegeniuses trying to get something
done and making decisions onwhat was important and not
important.
They felt the pressure to speedup the decision-making process
in order to seize theopportunities to innovate to
keep pace with the competition.
As their organizations becamesuccessful in growth in terms of
(04:25):
size, the pressure onlyintensifies.
Then I found it interesting.
They talked about Jeff Bezos andhe and he had a couple of
quotes that were interesting.
You have to have, you have tobe willing to be misunderstood
if you're going to be able toinnovate.
Or the other one that they usein the article is you have to
(04:47):
somehow make high quality, highvelocity decisions Easy for
startups, very challenging forlarge organizations, and it kind
of sets the tone for how fastyou can go in order to make a
mistake, and that's the warningthat they're trying to talk
about.
Greg, maybe you can talk aboutthat speed piece a little
(05:11):
further.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Thanks, john.
So ethical choices take timeand we had talked before about
think fast, think quick.
One side of your brain kind ofthe unconscious emotion, the
other side kind of consciousthinking.
One side's very fast, otherside kind of the unconscious
emotion, the other side kind ofconscious thinking, one side's
very fast, other side's kind ofslow.
One kind of has implicitresponses, the other side has
explicit responses.
(05:33):
Ethical choices take time.
Is a high-velocity decisionlikely to be an ethical decision
?
Many researchers have theirdoubts on that.
They point out that the mainobstacle to quick ethical
decision-making lies within ourown brains.
As I just mentioned, theyexplain that the brain has two
systems one fast, one slow.
(05:54):
We engage in traditionalcritical thinking.
We use a slow system.
We gather as much informationas we can think through possible
outcomes, examine the situationobjectively and finally, yes,
right.
Finally select the right choiceafter much deliberation.
But the brain's FAST systemworks differently.
It achieves efficiency byleaving out details and using
(06:17):
shortcuts and default choices.
So, rather than workingsystematically and rationally,
this system performs a quicksearch, matches a current choice
with prior information, oftenwith what's most readily
available from your most recentexperience.
Lab studies have begun to revealways that relying on the FAST
system could take a toll on ourethics.
(06:39):
So our default setting isself-interest.
You want to reset your default?
The problem with our FASTsystem is it often leads us to
act selfishly.
We had a psychologist at theUniversity of Amsterdam.
(07:02):
Use the example of what happenswhen we receive too much change
back from a cashier.
Although the immediate reactionmight be to take the cash,
thinking about it for an extrasecond will probably lead you to
change your mind.
In other words, the fast systemtakes the lead and tells us to
be self-serving, but the slowsystem often kicks in, hopefully
not too late, and, realizingthat behavior can't be justified
, we correct our first impulse.
(07:22):
We correct our first impulse.
Now our default settingself-interest.
So what happens when we can'tor don't take the time for the
slow system to kick in, right?
The same professor reasoned thatwhen we are on short on time,
we will stick with the unethicalself-interest choice.
He and his colleagues testedout this hypothesis by creating
(07:46):
a game in which participantsrolled a six-sided die
underneath a cup.
Only the person who rolled thedie could see the number
displayed directly on each roll.
After rolling several times,participants reported their
first score in exchange for cash.
Higher scores meant more money.
Here's what they discoveredParticipants were more likely to
(08:08):
lie when they had to movequickly.
That's right.
They were more likely to tell alie if they had to move quickly
.
Those who were given ample timemuch more time on the other
hand, were more likely toconsider their actions fully and
tell the truth.
Isn't that interesting?
In other words, theparticipants with little time
relied on their fastdecision-making system and its
(08:29):
default setting and actedaccording to their own
self-interest.
Those who had ample time couldallow their slower, more
deliberate decision-makingsystem to take over.
Let's continue.
And adding finding had to dowith the way we justify our
unethical decisions.
So this professor and hiscolleagues found that they could
(08:51):
limit cheating in a surprisingway by reducing the number of
times a person actually rolledthe die.
The instructions said to reportthe first score, but people who
rolled multiple times were ableto feel more comfortable lying
after they had rolled a highnumber, just not on their first
roll, as the instructions havesaid.
Professors and colleaguessummarize their findings this
(09:13):
way honesty requires time and alack of justification, john.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So the next thing is what to do here is the setup of
your organization for ethicaldecision-making to increase
their fast-paced environment.
You know to slow down, todelegate.
If there is any chance adecision that is an important
ethical implications, it makessense to slow down and consider
(09:45):
the decision thoroughly.
It may take less time than youthink.
A former UN chief ethicalofficer recently remarked we are
getting better at rolling backour resolve and think ready, aim
fire, think ready, aim fire,instead of moving to intake,
(10:11):
think, discuss, then resolve.
It does take a lot longer, butit takes about 10 seconds of
instinctive response.
Still, slow decision-making maynot be for everybody's
wheelhouse.
A good chief executive is hardto automate decision-making
(10:34):
process.
To ask a CEO to spend fourhours thinking about a single
problem is a waste of time forhim or hers valuable time.
Sometimes the best choice for aleader is to make a decision to
delegate and someone else canbe engaged in terms of time and
contemplation and conversationand making it more of a
deliberate process.
(10:55):
So the next point is probablythe most interesting for me
gathering the right information,me gathering the right
information.
When we make quick choices, wehave to be comfortable with the
uncertainty and the probabilityof incomplete information.
But acting with incompleteinformation is not the same
(11:18):
thing as going with a gutinstinct.
Jeff Bezos put it this way Mostdecisions should be made with
somewhere around 70% of theinformation that you have.
If you wait for 90%, in mostcases it will probably be too
slow and in his example, I thinkhe's talking about competition.
Similarly, marines thedecision-making Marines of the
(11:44):
military military speak about a70% solution when making a
decision, at 70% the information.
It allows you to make a quickdecision without acting too
rashly.
Making 70% count by making surethat it is ethical, not just
strategic or financial.
The next is creating speedbumps, which is an interesting
(12:09):
approach.
Speed poses a greater problemfor people facing a strong
temptation to act unethically.
Make sure that your employeestake the time to make those
decisions and install anofficial cooling-off period, a
requirement for approval, astandard time to deliberate and
(12:30):
to talk about moral decisions.
Recent research also point tothe power of a simple silent
pause.
The researchers behind thestudy forthcoming in the Journal
of Applied Psychology coachednegotiators to pause for at
least three seconds and sit insilence.
Okay, just as an editorialcomment.
(12:52):
I have used this technique inorder to try to push people to
think about what they'representing.
It works so well and threeseconds feels like a minute
minute.
This pause helps thenegotiators nudge themselves and
(13:12):
the others to think, be alittle bit more constructive,
try to find the win-win in termsof the challenges before them.
As a result, they are able togrow in terms of a decision and
create more value for themselvesand the counterparts in the
negotiation and create morevalue for themselves and the
counterparts in the negotiation.
Their next concept is somewhatsimple, but it's not easy to
(13:33):
apply.
The concept is be clear.
In my mind, it's be crystalclear.
When we're in a rush, it's easyto lose sight of the rules, the
norms, the possibleconsequences that normally guide
us in terms of doing the rightthing.
To make the moral norms or theconsequences very clear and
accessible.
(13:53):
When there is a clear prototypein terms of an ethical decision
that comes to mind, it isworthwhile to take the time, go
through scenarios, role play, dowhat you can to make sure
you're making the right decision, not the quick decision.
So all these rules and all thisreset, there's also other
(14:17):
elements of helping, greg, maybeyou can talk about the more fun
side.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Thank you, john, and fun it is.
So create space for rituals andplayfulness.
So time pressure makes us feelthreatened and isolated.
We can guard against thesefeelings by developing and
maintaining personal ritualsthat calm us.
So a corporate culture thatallows time for sleep and
exercise and provide space forthis playfulness and curiosity
(14:45):
can also help reduce stress andanxiety.
And you can't see this image,but there are smiles on the
faces of these people depictedhere.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
And they're doing some kind of like group activity
.
One's doing country western,one's kind of mocking the
Simpsons.
So they're just having a momentin time to have some fun.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Thank you, john.
Absolutely, the future is goingto be faster than the present.
The pressure companies alreadyfeel to speed up the
decision-making process willonly intensify as the pace of
automation, innovation andcommunication increases.
Make your ethicaldecision-making process
future-proof by making sure youunderstand how speed affects
(15:27):
ethical decision-making.
Be ready to give your ethicaldecisions the time they need,
and be ready to handle theinevitable challenges that arise
when we have to make choicesquickly.
Doing so will make sure youdon't leave your values behind
in an effort to keep up withcompetition.
John.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
So you know, the bottom line is good things take
time, good decisions take time.
There's no reason to try to bein a rush and the purpose of the
article is to talking aboutgoing so fast that you blow past
the things that are important.
Your own speed bumps your ownethical code, because you got a
(16:10):
decision and you have to have itdone right now.
One of my approaches and we'vetalked about this before is just
take a walk, even a short walk,even if it's five minutes, and
you'll be amazed in terms of howmuch that you can get in terms
of clearing your head and beingin the moment and physically
(16:32):
trying to get your body engagedin the process of feeling the
things that are around youbefore you go back into that
environment of an argument or anethical decision.
You have that moment of claritywhen you're taking a walk.
There's elements of stressreduction, it improves focus, it
enhances creativity and itincreases blood flow.
(16:56):
For me, I could feel my pulseactually slow down when I knew
that I was in a potentialargument, especially trying to
push somebody to an ethicaldecision that was breaking the
rules, and they knew it in orderto pull them back in.
It takes a lot of time and ittakes a lot them back in.
It takes a lot of time and ittakes a lot of effort and it
(17:16):
takes a lot of resolve beingable to walk away, come back to
the subject and make the changeseasier than just blowing
through the argument andnoticing that you're nothing
more than finger pointing.
You want decision-making, youneed a cool head, and that's
really the concept here the slowmind, not the fast mind.
Greg, I think you have anotherexample, john, I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
If I have to make a quick decision, I typically go
for a walk, like around thebuilding or around the block of
our facility, to briefly relievemy mind of clutter.
And sometimes I'll put AirPodson, but not music that makes me
bop my head and I'm singingalong to, but instrumental music
just to kind of soothe me alittle bit.
And then there's somethingcalled Occam's Razor.
(17:59):
It was something that came backup in the 14th century by a
philosopher and a theologian andessentially what it says is the
principle that states that thesimplest explanation is usually
the best explanation, becauseit's so easy to complicate your
mind with all possiblecircumstances, circumstances and
scenarios.
So here's an example of Occam'srazor.
(18:20):
Let's say the problem is yourcomputer suddenly isn't turning
on Right.
So the complex explanation, andsome people go to this very
quickly there's a criticalsystem file.
It's been corrupted due to arecent software update, causing
a hardware malfunction.
That's a complex explanation,but Occam's razor might be.
The computer is simply notplugged in properly.
Why wouldn't you go there first?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
right.
Yeah, engineers have the KISSsystem.
Keep it simple, stupid.
I mean, it's just.
You can make it as complicatedas you want, but did you check
the power in an automotive sense?
Did you fill the gas tank?
I mean it doesn't have to becomplicated.
You should try with the smalland then go to the large.
(19:02):
There you go.
Don't go for the mostcomplicated right off the bat.
The article from the Notre Dameresearch and a little bit about
what we're talking about isethics and time and
decision-making kind of allinterplay, and the faster you go
, the more likelihood you haveof making a bad decision.
(19:23):
If it's an ethical question, ifit's a very important question,
speed is not your ally.
Now, when you know when Bezoswas talking about gathering 70%
of information, I'm positive.
He's not talking about years,he's probably not talking about
months, but he's not talkingabout minutes.
So whatever is appropriate interms of time, take the time.
(19:45):
It's worth the investment.
So, if you like what you'veheard, so, if you like what
you've heard, my book Buildingyour Leadership Toolbox is
(20:05):
available on Amazon and BarnesNoble.
This podcast is available onwhat you're listening to, thank
you.
It's also available on Appleand Google and Spotify and other
formats.
A lot of what Greg and I talkabout really comes from the work
of Dr Durst.
His MBR program is available atsuccessgrowthacademycom.
If you want to get a hold ofGreg and I, send us a note at
wwwauthorjawcom, and the musichas been brought to you by my
(20:31):
grandson.
So we want to hear from you,send us your notes, send us your
notes, send us your suggestions.
We have found it is veryhelpful and we like to hear from
you guys, especially the thingsthat you have talked about and
how it has helped you in yourleadership and your challenges
at work.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
So thanks Greg, Thanks John, as always, Next
time yeah.
Well, hello and welcome to our podcast, success
Secrets and Stories.
I'm your host, john Wondolowski, and I'm here with my co-host
and friend.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Greg Powell, greg, hey everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah.
So I wanted to talk today aboutsomething I saw in the Notre
Dame Deloitte Center for EthicalLeadership, and the article was
called Do the Right Thing TakesTime.
What if you don't have it?
Implying time.
It's an article from October16th 2024 by Brett Beasley and
(00:55):
it started off with aninteresting graphic.
I'm just going to go over thegraphic, because this kind of
sets the tone.
They have their title and theyhave from the research center.
Each day you face pressure tomake a high velocity decision.
Here's how to make sure youdon't leave your values behind.
(01:17):
So I have four points and we'regoing to discuss it in a little
bit more detail.
One is gather the rightinformation.
Marines speak of a 70% solution.
They decide that 70% of theinformation that you make you
can make a good decision.
Making 70% matters ensures thatyou have at least an ethical or
(01:42):
you have a strategic approach.
Two create speed bumps.
Build in a cooling off periodfor decision-making processes to
provide extra time to considerethical challenges that might
arise.
And then number three Greg,thanks John.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Be clear.
When we're in a rush, it's easyto lose sight of the rules that
are meant to guide us to do theright thing.
If you make the moral norms andconsequences for bad behavior
as clear and accessible aspossible, employees will be less
likely to ignore them whenmaking quick decisions.
Create space for rituals andplayfulness.
(02:26):
Time pressure makes us feelthreatened and isolated.
Personal rituals that help usfeel calm and collected can help
us guard against those feelings.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And then the article moves on to the concept of you
will make 10,000 decisions todayWell, not really 10,000, but in
that number Some of them willbe relatively unimportant.
One study found, for example,that each day we make
approximately 200 choices ofwhat we are going to eat and
(02:59):
drink.
Many leaders try to avoid thatdecision fatigue by limiting the
number of insignificant choicesthey have to make.
They brought up a wonderfulexample of Steve Jobs, who wore
the same outfit, and I foundthis wonderful graphic that he
was wearing blue jeans, a blackturtleneck shirt from 1998 to
(03:20):
2010.
It was a wonderful example ofhe did not want to deal with
those decisions.
Those were done.
He had other decisions to makefor the day.
Another example was Bill Gates,who had no idea how much it
cost to buy a bag of Doritochips.
(03:41):
His guess was it was $22 a bagbag of Dorito chips.
His guess was it was $22 a bag.
So the important part aboutmaking decisions and
understanding the things thatare associated with it is time
and ethics.
So in order to try to kind ofhone in on this concept, they
went on in the article to saybut even when they stay laser
(04:03):
focused in terms of thesegeniuses trying to get something
done and making decisions onwhat was important and not
important.
They felt the pressure to speedup the decision-making process
in order to seize theopportunities to innovate to
keep pace with the competition.
As their organizations becamesuccessful in growth in terms of
(04:25):
size, the pressure onlyintensifies.
Then I found it interesting.
They talked about Jeff Bezos andhe and he had a couple of
quotes that were interesting.
You have to have, you have tobe willing to be misunderstood
if you're going to be able toinnovate.
Or the other one that they usein the article is you have to
(04:47):
somehow make high quality, highvelocity decisions Easy for
startups, very challenging forlarge organizations, and it kind
of sets the tone for how fastyou can go in order to make a
mistake, and that's the warningthat they're trying to talk
about.
Greg, maybe you can talk aboutthat speed piece a little
(05:11):
further.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Thanks, john.
So ethical choices take timeand we had talked before about
think fast, think quick.
One side of your brain kind ofthe unconscious emotion, the
other side kind of consciousthinking.
One side's very fast, otherside kind of the unconscious
emotion, the other side kind ofconscious thinking, one side's
very fast, other side's kind ofslow.
One kind of has implicitresponses, the other side has
explicit responses.
(05:33):
Ethical choices take time.
Is a high-velocity decisionlikely to be an ethical decision
?
Many researchers have theirdoubts on that.
They point out that the mainobstacle to quick ethical
decision-making lies within ourown brains.
As I just mentioned, theyexplain that the brain has two
systems one fast, one slow.
(05:54):
We engage in traditionalcritical thinking.
We use a slow system.
We gather as much informationas we can think through possible
outcomes, examine the situationobjectively and finally, yes,
right.
Finally select the right choiceafter much deliberation.
But the brain's FAST systemworks differently.
It achieves efficiency byleaving out details and using
(06:17):
shortcuts and default choices.
So, rather than workingsystematically and rationally,
this system performs a quicksearch, matches a current choice
with prior information, oftenwith what's most readily
available from your most recentexperience.
Lab studies have begun to revealways that relying on the FAST
system could take a toll on ourethics.
(06:39):
So our default setting isself-interest.
You want to reset your default?
The problem with our FASTsystem is it often leads us to
act selfishly.
We had a psychologist at theUniversity of Amsterdam.
(07:02):
Use the example of what happenswhen we receive too much change
back from a cashier.
Although the immediate reactionmight be to take the cash,
thinking about it for an extrasecond will probably lead you to
change your mind.
In other words, the fast systemtakes the lead and tells us to
be self-serving, but the slowsystem often kicks in, hopefully
not too late, and, realizingthat behavior can't be justified
, we correct our first impulse.
(07:22):
We correct our first impulse.
Now our default settingself-interest.
So what happens when we can'tor don't take the time for the
slow system to kick in, right?
The same professor reasoned thatwhen we are on short on time,
we will stick with the unethicalself-interest choice.
He and his colleagues testedout this hypothesis by creating
(07:46):
a game in which participantsrolled a six-sided die
underneath a cup.
Only the person who rolled thedie could see the number
displayed directly on each roll.
After rolling several times,participants reported their
first score in exchange for cash.
Higher scores meant more money.
Here's what they discoveredParticipants were more likely to
(08:08):
lie when they had to movequickly.
That's right.
They were more likely to tell alie if they had to move quickly
.
Those who were given ample timemuch more time on the other
hand, were more likely toconsider their actions fully and
tell the truth.
Isn't that interesting?
In other words, theparticipants with little time
relied on their fastdecision-making system and its
(08:29):
default setting and actedaccording to their own
self-interest.
Those who had ample time couldallow their slower, more
deliberate decision-makingsystem to take over.
Let's continue.
And adding finding had to dowith the way we justify our
unethical decisions.
So this professor and hiscolleagues found that they could
(08:51):
limit cheating in a surprisingway by reducing the number of
times a person actually rolledthe die.
The instructions said to reportthe first score, but people who
rolled multiple times were ableto feel more comfortable lying
after they had rolled a highnumber, just not on their first
roll, as the instructions havesaid.
Professors and colleaguessummarize their findings this
(09:13):
way honesty requires time and alack of justification, john.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So the next thing is what to do here is the setup of
your organization for ethicaldecision-making to increase
their fast-paced environment.
You know to slow down, todelegate.
If there is any chance adecision that is an important
ethical implications, it makessense to slow down and consider
(09:45):
the decision thoroughly.
It may take less time than youthink.
A former UN chief ethicalofficer recently remarked we are
getting better at rolling backour resolve and think ready, aim
fire, think ready, aim fire,instead of moving to intake,
(10:11):
think, discuss, then resolve.
It does take a lot longer, butit takes about 10 seconds of
instinctive response.
Still, slow decision-making maynot be for everybody's
wheelhouse.
A good chief executive is hardto automate decision-making
(10:34):
process.
To ask a CEO to spend fourhours thinking about a single
problem is a waste of time forhim or hers valuable time.
Sometimes the best choice for aleader is to make a decision to
delegate and someone else canbe engaged in terms of time and
contemplation and conversationand making it more of a
deliberate process.
(10:55):
So the next point is probablythe most interesting for me
gathering the right information,me gathering the right
information.
When we make quick choices, wehave to be comfortable with the
uncertainty and the probabilityof incomplete information.
But acting with incompleteinformation is not the same
(11:18):
thing as going with a gutinstinct.
Jeff Bezos put it this way Mostdecisions should be made with
somewhere around 70% of theinformation that you have.
If you wait for 90%, in mostcases it will probably be too
slow and in his example, I thinkhe's talking about competition.
Similarly, marines thedecision-making Marines of the
(11:44):
military military speak about a70% solution when making a
decision, at 70% the information.
It allows you to make a quickdecision without acting too
rashly.
Making 70% count by making surethat it is ethical, not just
strategic or financial.
The next is creating speedbumps, which is an interesting
(12:09):
approach.
Speed poses a greater problemfor people facing a strong
temptation to act unethically.
Make sure that your employeestake the time to make those
decisions and install anofficial cooling-off period, a
requirement for approval, astandard time to deliberate and
(12:30):
to talk about moral decisions.
Recent research also point tothe power of a simple silent
pause.
The researchers behind thestudy forthcoming in the Journal
of Applied Psychology coachednegotiators to pause for at
least three seconds and sit insilence.
Okay, just as an editorialcomment.
(12:52):
I have used this technique inorder to try to push people to
think about what they'representing.
It works so well and threeseconds feels like a minute
minute.
This pause helps thenegotiators nudge themselves and
(13:12):
the others to think, be alittle bit more constructive,
try to find the win-win in termsof the challenges before them.
As a result, they are able togrow in terms of a decision and
create more value for themselvesand the counterparts in the
negotiation and create morevalue for themselves and the
counterparts in the negotiation.
Their next concept is somewhatsimple, but it's not easy to
(13:33):
apply.
The concept is be clear.
In my mind, it's be crystalclear.
When we're in a rush, it's easyto lose sight of the rules, the
norms, the possibleconsequences that normally guide
us in terms of doing the rightthing.
To make the moral norms or theconsequences very clear and
accessible.
(13:53):
When there is a clear prototypein terms of an ethical decision
that comes to mind, it isworthwhile to take the time, go
through scenarios, role play, dowhat you can to make sure
you're making the right decision, not the quick decision.
So all these rules and all thisreset, there's also other
(14:17):
elements of helping, greg, maybeyou can talk about the more fun
side.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Thank you, john, and fun it is.
So create space for rituals andplayfulness.
So time pressure makes us feelthreatened and isolated.
We can guard against thesefeelings by developing and
maintaining personal ritualsthat calm us.
So a corporate culture thatallows time for sleep and
exercise and provide space forthis playfulness and curiosity
(14:45):
can also help reduce stress andanxiety.
And you can't see this image,but there are smiles on the
faces of these people depictedhere.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
And they're doing some kind of like group activity
.
One's doing country western,one's kind of mocking the
Simpsons.
So they're just having a momentin time to have some fun.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Thank you, john.
Absolutely, the future is goingto be faster than the present.
The pressure companies alreadyfeel to speed up the
decision-making process willonly intensify as the pace of
automation, innovation andcommunication increases.
Make your ethicaldecision-making process
future-proof by making sure youunderstand how speed affects
(15:27):
ethical decision-making.
Be ready to give your ethicaldecisions the time they need,
and be ready to handle theinevitable challenges that arise
when we have to make choicesquickly.
Doing so will make sure youdon't leave your values behind
in an effort to keep up withcompetition.
John.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
So you know, the bottom line is good things take
time, good decisions take time.
There's no reason to try to bein a rush and the purpose of the
article is to talking aboutgoing so fast that you blow past
the things that are important.
Your own speed bumps your ownethical code, because you got a
(16:10):
decision and you have to have itdone right now.
One of my approaches and we'vetalked about this before is just
take a walk, even a short walk,even if it's five minutes, and
you'll be amazed in terms of howmuch that you can get in terms
of clearing your head and beingin the moment and physically
(16:32):
trying to get your body engagedin the process of feeling the
things that are around youbefore you go back into that
environment of an argument or anethical decision.
You have that moment of claritywhen you're taking a walk.
There's elements of stressreduction, it improves focus, it
enhances creativity and itincreases blood flow.
(16:56):
For me, I could feel my pulseactually slow down when I knew
that I was in a potentialargument, especially trying to
push somebody to an ethicaldecision that was breaking the
rules, and they knew it in orderto pull them back in.
It takes a lot of time and ittakes a lot them back in.
It takes a lot of time and ittakes a lot of effort and it
(17:16):
takes a lot of resolve beingable to walk away, come back to
the subject and make the changeseasier than just blowing
through the argument andnoticing that you're nothing
more than finger pointing.
You want decision-making, youneed a cool head, and that's
really the concept here the slowmind, not the fast mind.
Greg, I think you have anotherexample, john, I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
If I have to make a quick decision, I typically go
for a walk, like around thebuilding or around the block of
our facility, to briefly relievemy mind of clutter.
And sometimes I'll put AirPodson, but not music that makes me
bop my head and I'm singingalong to, but instrumental music
just to kind of soothe me alittle bit.
And then there's somethingcalled Occam's Razor.
(17:59):
It was something that came backup in the 14th century by a
philosopher and a theologian andessentially what it says is the
principle that states that thesimplest explanation is usually
the best explanation, becauseit's so easy to complicate your
mind with all possiblecircumstances, circumstances and
scenarios.
So here's an example of Occam'srazor.
(18:20):
Let's say the problem is yourcomputer suddenly isn't turning
on Right.
So the complex explanation, andsome people go to this very
quickly there's a criticalsystem file.
It's been corrupted due to arecent software update, causing
a hardware malfunction.
That's a complex explanation,but Occam's razor might be.
The computer is simply notplugged in properly.
Why wouldn't you go there first?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
right.
Yeah, engineers have the KISSsystem.
Keep it simple, stupid.
I mean, it's just.
You can make it as complicatedas you want, but did you check
the power in an automotive sense?
Did you fill the gas tank?
I mean it doesn't have to becomplicated.
You should try with the smalland then go to the large.
(19:02):
There you go.
Don't go for the mostcomplicated right off the bat.
The article from the Notre Dameresearch and a little bit about
what we're talking about isethics and time and
decision-making kind of allinterplay, and the faster you go
, the more likelihood you haveof making a bad decision.
(19:23):
If it's an ethical question, ifit's a very important question,
speed is not your ally.
Now, when you know when Bezoswas talking about gathering 70%
of information, I'm positive.
He's not talking about years,he's probably not talking about
months, but he's not talkingabout minutes.
So whatever is appropriate interms of time, take the time.
(19:45):
It's worth the investment.
So, if you like what you'veheard, so, if you like what
you've heard, my book Buildingyour Leadership Toolbox is
(20:05):
available on Amazon and BarnesNoble.
This podcast is available onwhat you're listening to, thank
you.
It's also available on Appleand Google and Spotify and other
formats.
A lot of what Greg and I talkabout really comes from the work
of Dr Durst.
His MBR program is available atsuccessgrowthacademycom.
If you want to get a hold ofGreg and I, send us a note at
wwwauthorjawcom, and the musichas been brought to you by my
(20:31):
grandson.
So we want to hear from you,send us your notes, send us your
notes, send us your suggestions.
We have found it is veryhelpful and we like to hear from
you guys, especially the thingsthat you have talked about and
how it has helped you in yourleadership and your challenges
at work.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
So thanks Greg, Thanks John, as always, Next
time yeah.
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