Navigating a River of Doubt: Making Decisions in a 21^st Century World

Abstract

Ultimately, no decision making process is perfect. Crises can and will happen regardless of how well an organization functions, and it is physically impossible for such organizations to completely anticipate and prepare for all decision making needs during such challenges. However, organizations ranging from governments to the private sector can lay the groundwork to foster efficient, valid, ethical, and responsive decisions when such events do occur regardless of the disruptions that they pose. This is not only a question of practical leadership and navigation through a miasma of uncertainty, bias, and public criticism, but more of a foundational requirement for any public-facing body seeking to operate in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world.

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them.”

—William Shakespeare (1564-1616 A.D.), Hamlet