Chuck Clayton

Split Second Decision Making!



Posted: Wednesday, December 10, 2008

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Sometimes decisions need to be made quickly. All of your knowledge, education, experience, reasoning, intuition, common sense and confidence must come together rapidly.

A classic example of using thin slicing on multiple occasions was during the Apollo space program. Gene Kranz (a flight controller on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs) writes about the need for quick accurate decisions in his book: Failure is not an Option. Endless intensive simulations were run with the controllers, flight crew and others before every launch. Everyone's skills had to be razor sharp during the actual missions. Decisions had to be accurate and made in real time. There was little, and sometimes no room for error. Lives were at stake. Risk was part of their business.

Thin slicing was needed during the Apollo 13 crisis when an explosion on the command module caused damage threatening the lives of the crew members. Members of mission control used differential diagnosis to determine the root cause of the problem. They had to think through and brainstorm options, alternatives, risks and uncertainties. Then, working closely with the crew, and in a few hours they put together a set of procedures that would normally take weeks.

The Apollo 13 crew was returned safely back to earth. It was one of the finest hours of the Apollo space program. Exceptional knowledge, experience, reasoning, training, intuition, common sense, confidence and quickness were all necessary to make this possible.1,2

Gene Kranz sums up how he gained his skills to be a top flight director when he said:

"The flight director's ultimate training comes at the console, working real problems, facing the risks, making irrevocable decisions."

The better your skills and critical thinking are, coupled with training and quickness, the more prepared you will be to make sound decisions in the blink of an eye!

1 Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink-The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Little Brown and Company, New York , NY , 2005).

2 Kranz, Gene. Failure is not an Option-Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond (Simon and Schuster , New York , NY, 2000).

Chuck Clayton

Copyright 2009

All Rights Reserved

http://www.problem-solving-techniques.com

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