Success Secrets and Stories
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Success Secrets and Stories
Ethics Under Pressure when Rushing to Judgement
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
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:Greg Powell, greg, hey everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I wanted to talk today about something I saw in the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, and the article was called Do the Right Thing Takes Time. What if you don't have it? Implying time. It's an article from October 16th 2024 by Brett Beasley and it started off with an interesting graphic. I'm just going to go over the graphic, because this kind of sets the tone. They have their title and they have from the research center. Each day you face pressure to make a high velocity decision. Here's how to make sure you don't leave your values behind. So I have four points and we're going to discuss it in a little bit more detail. One is gather the right information. Marines speak of a 70% solution. They decide that 70% of the information that you make you can make a good decision. Making 70% matters ensures that you have at least an ethical or you have a strategic approach. Two create speed bumps. Build in a cooling off period for decision-making processes to provide extra time to consider ethical challenges that might arise. And then number three Greg, thanks John.
Speaker 1:Be clear. When we're in a rush, it's easy to lose sight of the rules that are meant to guide us to do the right thing. If you make the moral norms and consequences for bad behavior as clear and accessible as possible, employees will be less likely to ignore them when making quick decisions. Create space for rituals and playfulness. Time pressure makes us feel threatened and isolated. Personal rituals that help us feel calm and collected can help us guard against those feelings.
Speaker 2:And then the article moves on to the concept of you will make 10,000 decisions today Well, not really 10,000, but in that number Some of them will be relatively unimportant. One study found, for example, that each day we make approximately 200 choices of what we are going to eat and drink. Many leaders try to avoid that decision fatigue by limiting the number of insignificant choices they have to make. They brought up a wonderful example of Steve Jobs, who wore the same outfit, and I found this wonderful graphic that he was wearing blue jeans, a black turtleneck shirt from 1998 to 2010. It was a wonderful example of he did not want to deal with those decisions. Those were done. He had other decisions to make for the day. Another example was Bill Gates, who had no idea how much it cost to buy a bag of Dorito chips. His guess was it was $22 a bag bag of Dorito chips. His guess was it was $22 a bag.
Speaker 2:So the important part about making decisions and understanding the things that are associated with it is time and ethics. So in order to try to kind of hone in on this concept, they went on in the article to say but even when they stay laser focused in terms of these geniuses trying to get something done and making decisions on what was important and not important. They felt the pressure to speed up the decision-making process in order to seize the opportunities to innovate to keep pace with the competition. As their organizations became successful in growth in terms of size, the pressure only intensifies. Then I found it interesting.
Speaker 2:They talked about Jeff Bezos and he and he had a couple of quotes that were interesting. You have to have, you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to be able to innovate. Or the other one that they use in the article is you have to somehow make high quality, high velocity decisions Easy for startups, very challenging for large organizations, and it kind of sets the tone for how fast you can go in order to make a mistake, and that's the warning that they're trying to talk about. Greg, maybe you can talk about that speed piece a little further.
Speaker 1:Thanks, john. So ethical choices take time and we had talked before about think fast, think quick. One side of your brain kind of the unconscious emotion, the other side kind of conscious thinking. One side's very fast, other side kind of the unconscious emotion, the other side kind of conscious thinking, one side's very fast, other side's kind of slow. One kind of has implicit responses, the other side has explicit responses. Ethical choices take time. Is a high-velocity decision likely to be an ethical decision? Many researchers have their doubts on that. They point out that the main obstacle to quick ethical decision-making lies within our own brains. As I just mentioned, they explain that the brain has two systems one fast, one slow.
Speaker 1:We engage in traditional critical thinking. We use a slow system. We gather as much information as we can think through possible outcomes, examine the situation objectively and finally, yes, right. Finally select the right choice after much deliberation. But the brain's FAST system works differently. It achieves efficiency by leaving out details and using shortcuts and default choices. So, rather than working systematically and rationally, this system performs a quick search, matches a current choice with prior information, often with what's most readily available from your most recent experience.
Speaker 1:Lab studies have begun to reveal ways that relying on the FAST system could take a toll on our ethics. So our default setting is self-interest. You want to reset your default? The problem with our FAST system is it often leads us to act selfishly. We had a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam. Use the example of what happens when we receive too much change back from a cashier. Although the immediate reaction might be to take the cash, thinking about it for an extra second will probably lead you to change your mind. In other words, the fast system takes the lead and tells us to be self-serving, but the slow system often kicks in, hopefully not too late, and, realizing that behavior can't be justified, we correct our first impulse. We correct our first impulse. Now our default setting self-interest. So what happens when we can't or don't take the time for the slow system to kick in, right?
Speaker 1:The same professor reasoned that when we are on short on time, we will stick with the unethical self-interest choice. He and his colleagues tested out this hypothesis by creating a game in which participants rolled a six-sided die underneath a cup. Only the person who rolled the die 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 discovered Participants were more likely to lie when they had to move quickly.
Speaker 1:That's right. They were more likely to tell a lie if they had to move quickly. Those who were given ample time much more time on the other hand, were more likely to consider their actions fully and tell the truth. Isn't that interesting? In other words, the participants with little time relied on their fast decision-making system and its default setting and acted according to their own self-interest. Those who had ample time could allow their slower, more deliberate decision-making system to take over. Let's continue. And adding finding had to do with the way we justify our unethical decisions. So this professor and his colleagues found that they could limit cheating in a surprising way by reducing the number of times a person actually rolled the die. The instructions said to report the first score, but people who rolled multiple times were able to feel more comfortable lying after they had rolled a high number, just not on their first roll, as the instructions have said. Professors and colleagues summarize their findings this way honesty requires time and a lack of justification, john.
Speaker 2:So the next thing is what to do here is the setup of your organization for ethical decision-making to increase their fast-paced environment. You know to slow down, to delegate. If there is any chance a decision that is an important ethical implications, it makes sense to slow down and consider the decision thoroughly. It may take less time than you think. A former UN chief ethical officer recently remarked we are getting better at rolling back our resolve and think ready, aim fire, think ready, aim fire, instead of moving to intake, think, discuss, then resolve. It does take a lot longer, but it takes about 10 seconds of instinctive response. Still, slow decision-making may not be for everybody's wheelhouse. A good chief executive is hard to automate decision-making process. To ask a CEO to spend four hours thinking about a single problem is a waste of time for him or hers valuable time. Sometimes the best choice for a leader is to make a decision to delegate and someone else can be engaged in terms of time and contemplation and conversation and making it more of a deliberate process. So the next point is probably the most interesting for me gathering the right information, me gathering the right information. When we make quick choices, we have to be comfortable with the uncertainty and the probability of incomplete information. But acting with incomplete information is not the same thing as going with a gut instinct. Jeff Bezos put it this way Most decisions should be made with somewhere around 70% of the information that you have. If you wait for 90%, in most cases it will probably be too slow and in his example, I think he's talking about competition. Similarly, marines the decision-making Marines of the military military speak about a 70% solution when making a decision, at 70% the information. It allows you to make a quick decision without acting too rashly. Making 70% count by making sure that it is ethical, not just strategic or financial. The next is creating speed bumps, which is an interesting approach. Speed poses a greater problem for people facing a strong temptation to act unethically. Make sure that your employees take the time to make those decisions and install an official cooling-off period, a requirement for approval, a standard time to deliberate and to talk about moral decisions.
Speaker 2:Recent research also point to the power of a simple silent pause. The researchers behind the study forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Psychology coached negotiators to pause for at least three seconds and sit in silence. Okay, just as an editorial comment. I have used this technique in order to try to push people to think about what they're presenting. It works so well and three seconds feels like a minute minute. This pause helps the negotiators nudge themselves and the others to think, be a little bit more constructive, try to find the win-win in terms of the challenges before them. As a result, they are able to grow in terms of a decision and create more value for themselves and the counterparts in the negotiation and create more value for themselves and the counterparts in the negotiation.
Speaker 2:Their next concept is somewhat simple, but it's not easy to apply. The concept is be clear. In my mind, it's be crystal clear. When we're in a rush, it's easy to lose sight of the rules, the norms, the possible consequences that normally guide us in terms of doing the right thing. To make the moral norms or the consequences very clear and accessible. When there is a clear prototype in terms of an ethical decision that comes to mind, it is worthwhile to take the time, go through scenarios, role play, do what you can to make sure you're making the right decision, not the quick decision. So all these rules and all this reset, there's also other elements of helping, greg, maybe you can talk about the more fun side.
Speaker 1:Thank you, john, and fun it is. So create space for rituals and playfulness. So time pressure makes us feel threatened and isolated. We can guard against these feelings by developing and maintaining personal rituals that calm us. So a corporate culture that allows time for sleep and exercise and provide space for this playfulness and curiosity can also help reduce stress and anxiety. And you can't see this image, but there are smiles on the faces of these people depicted here.
Speaker 2: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 moment in time to have some fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you, john. Absolutely, the future is going to be faster than the present. The pressure companies already feel to speed up the decision-making process will only intensify as the pace of automation, innovation and communication increases. Make your ethical decision-making process future-proof by making sure you understand how speed affects ethical decision-making. Be ready to give your ethical decisions the time they need, and be ready to handle the inevitable challenges that arise when we have to make choices quickly. Doing so will make sure you don't leave your values behind in an effort to keep up with competition. John.
Speaker 2:So you know, the bottom line is good things take time, good decisions take time. There's no reason to try to be in a rush and the purpose of the article is to talking about going so fast that you blow past the things that are important. Your own speed bumps your own ethical code, because you got a decision and you have to have it done right now. One of my approaches and we've talked 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 how much that you can get in terms of clearing your head and being in the moment and physically trying to get your body engaged in the process of feeling the things that are around you before you go back into that environment of an argument or an ethical decision. You have that moment of clarity when you're taking a walk. There's elements of stress reduction, it improves focus, it enhances creativity and it increases blood flow.
Speaker 2:For me, I could feel my pulse actually slow down when I knew that I was in a potential argument, especially trying to push somebody to an ethical decision that was breaking the rules, and they knew it in order to pull them back in. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot them back in. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of effort and it takes a lot of resolve being able to walk away, come back to the subject and make the changes easier than just blowing through the argument and noticing that you're nothing more than finger pointing. You want decision-making, you need a cool head, and that's really the concept here the slow mind, not the fast mind. Greg, I think you have another example, john, I'm with you.
Speaker 1:If I have to make a quick decision, I typically go for a walk, like around the building or around the block of our facility, to briefly relieve my mind of clutter. And sometimes I'll put AirPods on, but not music that makes me bop my head and I'm singing along to, but instrumental music just to kind of soothe me a little bit. And then there's something called Occam's Razor. It was something that came back up in the 14th century by a philosopher and a theologian and essentially what it says is the principle that states that the simplest explanation is usually the best explanation, because it's so easy to complicate your mind with all possible circumstances, circumstances and scenarios. So here's an example of Occam's razor. Let's say the problem is your computer suddenly isn't turning on Right. So the complex explanation, and some people go to this very quickly there's a critical system file. It's been corrupted due to a recent software update, causing a hardware malfunction. That's a complex explanation, but Occam's razor might be. The computer is simply not plugged in properly. Why wouldn't you go there first?
Speaker 2:right. Yeah, engineers have the KISS system. Keep it simple, stupid. I mean, it's just. You can make it as complicated as 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 be complicated. You should try with the small and then go to the large. There you go. Don't go for the most complicated right off the bat.
Speaker 2:The article from the Notre Dame research and a little bit about what we're talking about is ethics and time and decision-making kind of all interplay, and the faster you go, the more likelihood you have of making a bad decision. If it's an ethical question, if it's a very important question, speed is not your ally. Now, when you know when Bezos was 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 talking about minutes. So whatever is appropriate in terms of time, take the time. It's worth the investment.
Speaker 2:So, if you like what you've heard, so, if you like what you've heard, my book Building your Leadership Toolbox is available on Amazon and Barnes Noble. This podcast is available on what you're listening to, thank you. It's also available on Apple and Google and Spotify and other formats. A lot of what Greg and I talk about really comes from the work of Dr Durst. His MBR program is available at successgrowthacademycom. If you want to get a hold of Greg and I, send us a note at wwwauthorjawcom, and the music has been brought to you by my 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 very helpful and we like to hear from you guys, especially the things that you have talked about and how it has helped you in your leadership and your challenges at work.
Speaker 1:So thanks Greg, Thanks John, as always, Next time yeah.