Decision making is no easy feat, even when there is no time limit or information gaps. When you add stress to that process, it becomes tougher. The simple becomes difficult and the difficult becomes nearly impossible.
The stress factor in decision making
Looking back early in my career, I was a young officer working in patrol and a member of our SWAT team. I was attending a SWAT training day on a local military installation, far from the distractions of our regular duties.
We had been repping out entries all day. It was hot, and wearing all that gear was making it hotter. We were all tired, mistakes were becoming more frequent, and tempers were short.
I was relatively new to the SWAT team and still trying to figure it all out. I had made some mistakes earlier that day — nothing that was a showstopper, but enough to erode my self-confidence. The last thing I needed was any more mistakes to add to the pile. I wanted everyone on the team to be confident I could do the job the right way. While it was important to me for supervisors to consider my performance acceptable, it was far more important to me to gain the trust of the senior SWAT operators on the team, especially the entry team guys.
A turning point in the shoot house
Fast forward to the afternoon — we were working a different area of the shoot house that most of us had not yet been exposed to. I was paired up with a guy who was senior to me on the department and on the SWAT team for a two-man entry. We were staged at the door, which was closed, and we had that precious sixty to ninety seconds to figure out what we were going to do.
My partner started to analyze the problem out loud. He talked about what he would do and what I should do. He told me that if we encountered a room that opened left, what we would do; if it opened right, what we would do; if it opened to a hallway, what we would do.
About fifteen seconds or so into his description, he lost me. I wasn’t necessarily overwhelmed by what he was describing, but it was beyond my capability to save it to my own mental hard drive. I lacked the experience to use for context, and his description of actions was very detailed. He made a lot of “if this, then we do that” statements. It was a lecture.
Finally, I interrupted him: “Let’s just move. We will figure it out when we see what we are faced with. Keep it simple.” Essentially, I wanted us to use principle-based decision making — I just wasn’t saying it articulately.
Discovering principle-based decision-making
Over the years, I have found that principle-based decision-making is an exceptional tool to improve my own decision-making process. It provides a framework to approach an issue and guide you through to a decision.
There are several principle-based decision-making models out there with a varying number of steps in the process. Many models lean into the ethics of decision making and understanding the impact of those decisions using an ethical framework to measure success. Measuring and defining success is one of the most important components of the decision-making process, so having that ethical overlay has its attraction, but it is not the only way to measure success. Look at the “OODA Loop” created by Mark Boyd.
Let’s use the aforementioned building entry scenario and discuss how principle-based decision making clears up the mess.
1. Define the problem
To address an issue, you first have to determine what you are trying to solve. We were performing a building entry and trying to define the layout of the structure before we saw it. How could we possibly define the unknown?
Start with what you have in front of you. We had a closed door, but we could see which side the hinges were on. We knew if the door opened in or out of the structure. We knew what type of mechanism opened the door. We really knew a lot about that door, just not a lot about what was behind it.
Break the problem down into its smaller parts. We knew we had to open that door. We knew we had to perform a room entry. We knew how to perform room entries in almost every configuration of a door attached to a room that you could imagine. We had to focus on the door and that first step into the room. That was the problem.
Avoid making the problem too big. I’m not saying the entire problem doesn’t have to be resolved — we just need to make it a bunch of smaller problems that lead to the resolution of the big one.
An ill-defined problem is hard to solve. Keep your definition as tight as you can. If you can’t define the problem, how can you understand if you were successful?
2. Identify the principles
You must know what principles are applicable to your decision. There can be an ethical basis for those principles, but that is not necessary to use this decision-making model. There are times when it’s just about getting a task done. The important thing is to have these principles already defined, even if it’s a rough definition.
When time is in short supply, don’t waste it doing the mental gymnastics required to define principles. Game day is here — the time to train for it was some time before now. Do the work. Work hard at it.
Experience is the hammer that forges principles on the anvil of theory. Use both theory and experience to form the best principles you can, and don’t be afraid to amend them over time as appropriate. New experiences should cause you to refine those principles. We do not live in a vacuum.
Sometimes there are a number of considerations: preserve life, protect property, search location, identify occupants, and apprehend suspects. Sometimes there are just a few: open the door, enter as safely as possible.
At this point in my life, I had been opening all kinds of doors for a while — so had my partner. We had this part figured out. As luck would have it, we also knew how to enter a doorway in a high-risk environment in a manner that was as safe as possible. We had principles and a common operating picture. That door never stood a chance.
3. Consider the options
Using the principles you have already defined, come up with a few options. This can be done hastily, but use the time you have available. Take a beat to breathe confidence into the decision you think you want to make. If it falls apart in that moment of consideration, maybe go to the next option.
Make sure you don’t linger too long, though. This is often the step where analysis paralysis rears its ugly head. Be as wise as time allows, but understand a decision must be made.
Otherwise, you are just stuck in a feedback loop that destroys the decision-making process. How many times have we seen someone “vapor lock” on a decision, only to have someone else step in and make a tough call? Analysis paralysis happens to us all sometimes — do everything you can to guard against it while still being thoughtful.
It can be a tough balance the closer you are to the decision being made — in time, proximity, distance, or emotion. These factors can slow your decision-making process down, especially when you haven’t experienced that situation before. It doesn’t get any easier when the problem is complex, even when you have broken it down into smaller parts.
My partner and I knew how to read a doorway, and we were generally in agreement on how to get to the other side of it. Absent any special circumstances, we were already aligned. In our case, it was just a quick conversation about who was doing what.
4. Make a decision
This seems like an obvious component of this model, but it can be vexing for some. I have observed that if a decision is difficult, some people will hang out in the “consider the options” step for a while. Their hope is that time will solve the problem.
What many do not seem to understand is that this is a decision as well. Allowing time to pass should be a formal decision, not a deferment to making one. This “wait and see” strategy is maddening. It is often based on fear of making the wrong decision and exacerbating the problem. There can also be a fear of repercussions and self-preservation driving this pause.
Another pitfall is that the decision maker is overwhelmed by events. This is a hazard faced by the inexperienced and veteran alike. They could be overwhelmed by the emotion associated with the problem, their lack of knowledge, their lack of experience, or it could be a novel event they have not seen before.
In any case, this is an opportunity to help someone out. Often a direct conversation — laying out the available options, reinforcing the principles used to make the decision — is sufficient. Be warned: there may be an ego or two out there, so do your best to drop yours and help. This is not the time to embrace conflict; it is the time to seek common ground. Be kind — solving the problem takes precedence.
My partner and I had decided. I was on the doorknob side of an inward-opening door. My partner told me he would go in first after I opened the door. Easy peasy.
5. Execute your decision and evaluate the results
This is the implementation of your decision — good, bad, or ugly. The results may not seem immediate or effective depending on the problem, but many times they are.
In either case, this is the opportunity to evaluate the results. In this evaluation, you can start this decision-making process once again. Your decision has affected the issue in some manner, even if all you did was determine what is ineffective. The issue has been re-framed in the context of decisions made.
If you defined the problem, you can measure the success of your decision.
One more door to breach
Back at the door, I opened it. My partner went in first, and I followed, covering off in the areas of my responsibility. This was all unspoken. I don’t remember much about how the room was laid out, but I do recall we performed a successful room clearing exercise. Our movement into and through the room was pretty good. In hindsight, I credit my mind being clear of “what if” noise and driven by principles.
We cleared that room and rendered that environment safe. But there was another door on the other side of the room. We started the process over again — faster and better at it because of our experiences.
Defining your principles is something you do every day. You refine them with every issue, problem, conversation, or interaction. Keep honing them down as much as you can. These guiding principles feed into your own principle-based decision-making process. It’s about changing lives — sometimes your own.
Every decision you make builds your experience. Use this experience to inform your future decision-making process. If it was a terrible decision, I hope you were in the safety of a training environment. If not, learn from it. I have made mistakes in training and with real-world issues. I was fortunate enough to have learned from training to amend my principles with that experience.
The more you exercise this muscle, the easier it gets to use it and the stronger a decision maker you can become. This is one of those races that never ends. We are always growing if we allow ourselves to.
There will always be one more door to breach.
Police1 reader challenge
Think about the last time you had to make a decision under pressure — whether in the field, during training or even in your personal life. Apply the five steps from this article:
- Define the problem without making it bigger
- Identify the principles before the moment arrives
- Consider your options — but avoid analysis paralysis
- Make the decision, even when it’s uncomfortable
- Execute, evaluate and adapt for the next challenge
Would you have approached it differently using this process? Share your scenario and how you might change your decision in the comments below.
