Ethical Decision Making

[tombuch 0]

There was a request in a thread in the Incidents Forum that I post a handout of five questions to improve ethical decision making. The handout is designed to help Coaches and Instructors to better evaluate decisions, and improve the quality of those decisions. Too often when we make decisions we think about "the moment," but we should really pull back and think in broader terms. So, These are my five suggested questions to build ethical decision making:


1) Does the decision make sense?

2) Is the decision in the best interest of the student?

3) Is the decision ‘by the book,’ and can I defend it to regulatory professionals?

4) Can I defend the decision to an injured student or his survivors?

5) Can I defend decision to a jury of lay people?

Tom Buchanan
Instructor Emeritus
Comm Pilot MSEL,G
Author: JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun and Easy

[illusioneer 0]

6. Can I defend the decision to myself, no matter what the outcome?

[diablopilot 2]

Brilliant Tom, thank you.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[steelyeye 0]

Tom,

Great work! I like your summary much better than the explanation I had to endure during some of my military training on ethical decision making (attached), but it sounds like you are essentially talking about the "Washington Post Test".

Thanks! I'll use it in my training!

"Better a has-been than a never-was. Better a never-was than a never-tried-to-be..."

[jdthomas 0]

Right on the mark with this one Tom, thank you very much.
Joe

www.greenboxphotography.com

[lawrocket 3]

This is a great starting point, Tom. But to be an assessment and a learning tool, something like this needs to be evaluated by a group of peers.

Too often, a person does not see thewhole picture.

Does the decision make sense?
Well, to some, it does but unless the decision-maker is provided feedback then the decision-maker will have nothing but reinforcement for the decision that, perhaps, did not take some iportant things into consideration.

Is the decision in the best interest of the student?
This is potentially the most difficult for the instructor/decisiom-maker. There are plenty of times when the instructor and the student are operating with different goals. Often the instructor is more comfortable than the student with the student's abilities or goals. The best interest of the student may be to push the student past where the student wants to go. Or, the best interest may be to stay within the envelope that the student is comfortable pushing. Rarely is it in the best interests of the student to allow him or her to push limits for which the instructor is uncomfortable.

Is the decision ‘by the book,’ and can I defend it to regulatory professionals?
This is double-edged - if you've got a document that you utilize, you can defend it by saying, "It says right here what should be done." But sometimes it can be difficult. "That cloud looks like it's at least two miles away." But by the time the high altitude h&p jumpers clear 8,000 feet, the clouds are 1/4 mile away, and approaching. What then? That's where the difficulty comes in.

Also, if you are following federal regs but there is a BSR (even a local BSR) that is more stringent, well, what then? Which book are you using to defend yourself?

Can I defend the decision to an injured student or his survivors?
To the injured student? Probably. The student trusted you and likely still does.
To the family of the dead or injured student? Odds are the student hasn't yet convinced the family that the decision to skydive was defensible, period. (I know this from personal experience). Add to that a possible error in judgment, and the odds of defending it are pretty low.

Can I defend decision to a jury of lay people?

Probably to the satisfaction of most people, you could. But you never know with a jury. After all - OJ walked, right?

My wife is hotter than your wife.