Critical Decisions
Making Critical Decisions
When the stakes are high
How do you make wise decisions when you're under pressure and out of time?
What's the best approach for big decisions? Your Gut? Your Heart? Your Brain? A mix of all of them? Or an Algorithm?
How do you know when to play it safe and when to do something audacious?
When 85% of 14,000 organisational leaders surveyed, say they’re fatigued by the sheer number of decisions they now have to face, when 1/3 of those surveyed say they simply rely on their gut for decision making, and over 2/3 said there’s too much data and they don’t know what to trust, it’s clear that learning how to make better decisions when the pressure is on, remains a crucial skill for leaders and managers in 2025.
Drawing on a wealth of lived experience and research, we’ll explore three common, confusing dilemmas faced by organisational leaders, revealing insights and strategies through each dilemma, to help you make difficult decisions wisely, promptly and with less stress.
Dilemma 1
Never give up? Or wake up and smell the coffee?
Dilemma 2
Bold decisions? Or play it safe?
Dilemma 3
Tackle the core issue? Or tackle the peripheral issues?
You will learn:
Why your gut is both powerful and flawed as a decision making tool and when to best use it.
Why unconscious biases undermine good decision-making and the most dangerous biases to look out for, from Sunk Cost Fallacy, Optimism Bias, Confirmation Bias to Tabloid Thinking.
How to create an Investment Timeline, to prevent you from getting stuck when you don’t know whether to persevere or quit.
How to navigate your most difficult decisions with minimal stress, and why heuristics enable prompt decision making, whilst protecting you from the flaws in your gut.
How to create your own heuristical decision making strategy, which can act as your guide when faced with big decisions, supporting intelligent decision making, protecting you from the flaws in your gut, whilst also avoiding procrastination when you need to be decisive.
Why we ignore important issues when we're under pressure and how to spot problems early, using techniques such as Elephant Spotting and the Pre-Mortem in order to prevent nasty (yet avoidable) shocks.