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BILL’S CASE(*)

STAGE 1: UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION AND DECISION

Stage 1.1 WHERE AM I NOW?

Exercise: Explore Your Initial Thoughts

Bill described his situation:

Bill felt perplexed about what he should do, drawn towards two moral poles. On the one hand helping his friend and colleague who was in trouble and had been unfairly treated, and on the other doing what his role as a manager seemed to imply he should do. The problem is further exacerbated by Bill’s confusion about what a manager ought to do. He described his decision like this:

This problem raised these two issues that Bill identified:

Bill was not short of things that he thought he would like to achieve in dealing with this decision. Rather his problem is too many, what appear to be conflicting values. These are recorded below:

In response to the email Bill could see the options below, but he wasn’t really happy with any of them as it either seemed that he could help his friend and betray the confidence of his supervisor and potentially get himself in trouble, or keep the information that he had and let down his friend. He expressed the options like this:

Exercise: Explore your Initial Emotions

The emotions that Bill explored about the problem were quite complicated. Towards Peter he felt a mixture of guilt, fear, resentment and compassion while for his new role as manager he felt a lot of confusion, some regret over coming ‘out of the ranks’ and resentment towards his supervisor. Given his ambivalence about how he should act he not surprisingly also felt frustration about being pulled in different directions.

Stage 1.2  MOVING FORWARD

Exercise: Be an Ace Investigative Journalist and Your Own Sympathetic Critic

Bill, acting as an Ace Investigative Journalist and his own Sympathetic Critic, produced these questions and answers

Exercise: Be an Un-Spin Doctor

It also became clear that Bill needed to do some un-spinning as what was making a vivid impression upon him was what could happen to Peter whilst his own future was not uppermost in his mind. However when he realized that he might become part of a court case about Peter’s unfair dismissal he realized that he also needed to pay attention to his own well-being.

Stage 1.3 REASSESSING

Exercise: Reassess Your Thoughts

Bill’s change in his understanding of the situation is recorded in the questions and answers. He still felt he had the same problem to answer – what to do about this email, but now the decision to make was broader, in that this included what should he do about Peter in general; how should he act towards his supervisor and what should his role as a manager be?

Exercise: Reassess Your Emotions

Bill reassessed his emotions like this. Realising that he was not the only person who had Peter’s interests at heart, and that Peter was acting unfairly towards him by sending the email meant that the strengths of many of his emotions shifted radically (changes recorded in bold below). It also became apparent to Bill that many of his emotions about Peter had been motivating him towards responding to his email by telling him he was being ‘gunned for’ but that this might not be the most appropriate action to take in response to them. Instead he would have to think carefully about what would be fair.

STAGE 2. DETERMINE WHAT MATTERS MOST

Exercise: Generate Candidate Values

In stage 1 Bill had already generated a wide-ranging set of values so the main task here became eliminating duplicates and then seeing which were most weighty.

Exercise: Weigh Up Values

Bill weighed his values like this:

STAGE 3. GENERATE OPTIONS

Exercise: Generating Options

Bill had previously produced the options of silence (ignoring the email) and responding by telling Peter that he was being ‘gunned for’ so that he could prepare himself. Bill now generated more options. These are the options he came up:

On looking at this list Bill realized that options 4 and 5 could be combined so that he could say that he can’t comment and furthermore that Peter was wrong to ask him this kind of question.

Looking at his list of values and reflecting on the expanded view of the decision he had developed in Stage 1 he also realized that he could do more than simply react to the email, as he could also speak to his supervisor about how John had been behaving, about how he had been treated in the past and about what might be the best way forward. Bill resolved to meet his supervisor at the next opportunity to discuss these issues. He needed for now though to think through what response to make to the email.

STAGE 4. ASSESS OPTIONS

Exercise: Select the Best Option

Bill judged that the weighted values would be satisfied by the different options like this:

ASSESS OPTIONS
OPTIONS   VALUES	Silence: do nothing	Telling what know	Lying: saying no idea	Saying can’t comment and confronting
Protecting my interests (5)	3 (it would protect my interests at the company but not my interest in being a straightforward and courageous human being – so not as good as Option 4)	0 (if this were to become known in the company I would lose my reputation and trustworthiness – esp. serious if Peter took the company to a tribunal)	3 (it would protect my interests at the company but not my interest in being a straightforward and courageous human being – so not as good as Option 4)	5 (protect my interest both short term and set my relationship with Peter on a better long-term footing. I would also be courageous and trustworthy to both the company and Peter)
Not breaching confidentiality (4)	5 (supervisors confidentiality not broken)	0 (supervisors confidentiality is broken)	5 (supervisors confidentiality not broken)	5 (supervisors confidentiality not broken)
Helping, as one human being to another (4)	2 (neither helps nor harms Peter)	3 (perhaps in the short term but in longer term might not)	1 (Peter would not know what was coming his way)	3 (Hard to judge – but might help Peter by getting him to act better)
My duty, as a manager, to Peter as an employee (3)	neutral	0 (I have no duty as a manager to do this and probably a duty not to)	0 (I have no duty as a manager to do this and probably not to)	5 (this would give to Peter a clear message about the sorts of behaviour which are and are not acceptable within the company)
My duty to the company (2)	neutral	0 (this would undermine the company especially if Peter were to go to tribunal)	3 (this would protect the company’s interest but not as well as option 4 does)	5 (this would be in the best interest of the company for same reason as above)
Selected Best Option				1

STAGE 5. CARRYING OUT THE DECISION

Given this analysis it is clear that the best option is option 4. Bill resolved to fire up his computer and send his response to the request for information. He also resolved that he would speak to his supervisor about Peter; he would recognize that he had been acting very poorly but he would also point out how the company had let him down in the past and pass on his assessment of Peter’s work strengths and weaknesses. This would be treating Peter fairly.

* Details have been changed to preserve the privacy of 'Bill'
This case comes from a decision-making workshop. Working with a group the case took about two hours. The analysis was produced by the whole group facilitated by a member of the PROGRESS team.