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Andrew Pain

andrewpain.co.uk

Clear Under Pressure

Decision-making

How to make wise decisions when the stakes are high, and you need to think fast

Andrew explores three common leadership dilemmas through lived experience and research, giving you practical strategies to make difficult decisions wisely, promptly and with less stress.

Andrew Pain speaking

What this session covers

  1. Why your gut is both powerful and flawed as a decision making tool and when to best use it.
  2. 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.
  3. How to create an Investment Timeline, to prevent you from getting stuck when you don't know whether to persevere or quit.
  4. 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.
  5. How to create your own heuristical decision making strategy, which can act as your guide when faced with big decisions.
  6. 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.

What your people leave with

  • Understand when to trust your gut – and when not to.
  • Recognise the most dangerous unconscious biases affecting your decisions (Sunk Cost Fallacy, Optimism Bias, Confirmation Bias, Tabloid Thinking).
  • Build an Investment Timeline to know when to persevere or quit.
  • Navigate difficult decisions with minimal stress using heuristics.
  • Create your own heuristical decision-making strategy.
  • Spot problems early with Elephant Spotting and the Pre-Mortem.

Who it's for

Organisational leaders, managers and teams who face high volumes of complex decisions under pressure

Formats & logistics

Talk length
Keynotes usually run 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes 90. Around two hours it becomes a workshop; longer than that is rare.
Audience size
From an intimate group of 8–12 to a main-stage audience of 200–250. Interactive workshops usually sit around 40–70.
AV & tech
Andrew works with whatever setup you have. And if the tech fails, the show still goes on – he'll present without slides.
In-person or virtual
Delivered on-site or online, on the platform you already use – most often Teams or Zoom.