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[Music]
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um I want to start by telling you the
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truth about decision making and the
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truth kind of goes like this as human
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beings you're defined by your skeletons
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your cells your tissues and your organs
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just like Dr Curry was talking about
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earlier with his
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dinosaurs but as people you're defined
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by the decisions that you make and the
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decisions that you don't make I teach
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decision- making at the University of
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Calgary elsewhere and I like to teach
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using metaphors and one of the metaphors
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I like to use is of the bigger picture
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seeing the bigger picture and I like to
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show this slide to my students hope you
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enjoy it
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too and the question I would ask you is
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how many dolphins do you
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see and there are nine that didn't
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appear but there are nine in there there
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are arrows that would point to nine
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Dolphins you can sort of see them around
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the bodies you can see them in the
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middle part of the woman there you can
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see them all around and I like this
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slide because it it kind of says that
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when it comes to decision- making we
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don't see the big picture either and one
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of the things that we don't see when we
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talk about decision- making um is really
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important and and that is our values our
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values are largely hidden from us when
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we make the choices that impact us and
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that impact the others that are around
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us
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in many ways you can think of decision-
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making as a mirror a mirror that
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reflects your values to other people
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that's one way to look at it you make
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choices you don't think about your
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values but there are implied values that
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you reflect out to the world around you
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another way to think about decision-
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making and the way that I prefer to
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think about it is that decision- making
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is a lens that takes your values that
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sharpens them that bring that brings
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them into focus and that makes them
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materialize in the choices uh that you
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make
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to illustrate this we've done some
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research um one of the examples I'll
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show you is relevant to I think a lot of
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calgarians and that is around the
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question of ethical oil my good friend
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Ezra Levant who likes to criticize me
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from time to time um this is my way of
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kind of getting back at him we designed
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an experiment where people could pull up
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to a hypothetical gas station much like
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he would pull up to a bar and in that
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bar just like you could pick beers from
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different nations around the world made
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of different ingredients and that
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different prices you could pull up to
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gas pumps and get your gas from
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different oils from different places in
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the world made in different ways and
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that the menu would it look kind of like
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something like this that you could look
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at the environmental impacts of the
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extraction of that oil that made that
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gas you could look at the overall
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Environmental Protection the reputation
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of the country that made that gas you
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could look at the reputation of that
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country on human rights you could look
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at the greenhouse gas emissions of
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making that gas from when you pulled it
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out of the ground to when you burned it
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in the car and you could look how much
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that gas actually cost you and if you
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ask Canadians and we asked a lot of
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Canadians to pull up to this gas station
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which pump would they pull up to First
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the vast majority of Canadians pull up
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to the Canadian pump the pump that makes
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oil or that produces gas or that gives
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you gas from the oil sands right here in
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Alberta if on the other hand we ask
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those same Canadians to pause for a
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second and reflect on the things that
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matter to them their values and to
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account for those values in their
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decision- making we see something like
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this all of a sudden Canada's reputation
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doesn't matter nearly as much although
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it does matter a lot what ends up
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mattering a whole lot more is what's
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happening today right now what are we
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doing in this country right now today in
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terms of the environment what are we
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doing right now in this country today in
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terms of greenhouse gas emissions and
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what we're doing to the climate and when
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you get people to account for those
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values first and then go to the gas
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station something happens Canadian gas
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suddenly Falls to fourth place in fact
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in some of our experiments it falls all
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the way down to fifth place and this
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raises an important sort of point and
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that point is this doesn't mean that
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Canadian gas is an ethical gas it just
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means that there are other things out
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there that do a better job of reflecting
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our values and we want to account for
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that in the decisions that we make
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because like I said decisions are
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important they Define who you are as a
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person if we ask people Canadians
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Americans Europeans people in Asia which
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model of decision- making they prefer
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most people would tell us that they
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would rather use the Lens model they
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would rather pause reflect think about
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their values use the lens to focus those
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and then use their decisions to manifest
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those decision those values into uh real
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life
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outcomes but if you buy the idea that
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for most of the decisions we make we're
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looking at mirrors and if you buy the
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idea that we fail to see the bigger
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picture all the time then we have to
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account for another truth in decision-
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making and this truth comes from my good
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friend Robin Gregory and another good
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friend Paul
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slovic and that truth is that when it
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comes to the vast majority of decisions
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that you make in your life you're not
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simply an archaeologist uncovering your
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preferences in the mind uncovering
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pre-existing decisions that you've made
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in the past or pre-existing preferences
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that you have in the future because you
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can't have pre pre-existing preferences
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if you haven't thought carefully about
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your values to begin with what you are
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instead in decision- making is an
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architect you're an architect who has to
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use the information that's present at
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the time of the decision point the
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information that you bring to the table
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in terms of your values and then
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construct a decision the best decision
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that you construct at that moment at
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that time the decision that reflects
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your
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values any good architect will tell you
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that in order to do good construction
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you need a building code and the
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building code for decision- making looks
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like this we need to First think about
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what our goals what our objectives are
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as a function of the values that we hold
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we need to think about the options that
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we have to choose among we need to think
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about the outcomes and the consequences
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of those Alternatives in terms of the
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values that we bring to the table in the
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beginning and we need to think carefully
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about the tradeoffs that we're willing
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to make when we make decisions and the
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tradeoffs that we're unwilling to make
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when we make decisions ultimately
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decision- making is about
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tradeoffs now Raheem mentioned something
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and it's true I I do a lot of work for
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government I do a lot of work for
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industry and in that work we use a lot
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of fancy computer simulations and models
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to get people to think more carefully
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about their values and then to input
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those values into big decisions and I'm
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not going to talk to you about that
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today because it implies that decision-
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making is really complicated and hard
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and to some extent that it is but
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there's something about decision- making
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that's sort of natural something that we
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can all do so the example I'm going to
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show you is an example from East Africa
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some work we did uh in Tanzania in tiny
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tiny Massi Villages over about three
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hours and that decision was around
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helping people to make better choices
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about the water treatment systems that
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they would use in their homes to PR
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prevent themselves from becoming very
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ill and this is a photo of a young boy
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at something called the dip it's about
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800 met from a small town we worked in
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and you can see him dipping a cup into
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this uh very Brown kind of chocolate
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milky green colored water and he's about
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to take a
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drink if you look behind the little boy
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to the left you'll see some laundry
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hanging if you look behind the little
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boy to the right you'll see some people
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getting ready to do some laundry if you
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looked off camera to the right you'd see
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some people taking a bath and if you
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came back dead in the evening you'd see
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some animals in the water too so let me
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assure you that this is water that you
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wouldn't want to drink on a regular
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basis uh if you had a choice in the
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matter so the question is what can we do
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in terms of the point of view water
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treatment systems these people use to
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help them actually make better choices
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culturally relevant choices choices in
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line with their values that would help
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them uh to actually stay safe and live
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fruitful
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lives the conversation started not with
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words because this was in a community
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that was accustomed to dealing with
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Western researchers and Western analysts
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on issues like this so the conversation
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began with pictures instead and what
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you're looking at are eight pictures
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drawn by Massi people in these tiny
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villages in which we worked uh at this
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time and we worked in actually quite a
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few Villages at the time to tell you the
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truth um the top left is a picture of a
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family a family that's happy and healthy
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because they're drinking Safe Water the
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picture to the right of the family is a
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paintbrush reflecting the fact that the
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water has to be the right color to the
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right of that is a flower reflecting the
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fact that the water has to be of the
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right smell the most uh the smell that's
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most in line with people's values to the
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right of that is a piece of candy to
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recognize that the water has to taste
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just right the lower left a watch you
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have to be able to get the water that's
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clean and safe in a timely fashion to
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the right of that a bucket it has to be
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as easy as just sort of getting a big
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volume of water in a single bucket
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without a lot of thought same with the
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pot being able to just sort of pour
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water into a pot put the lid on it and
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cook and to the right of that that funny
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looking thing on the right that sort of
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looks like a saddle that's that's a
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cashew nut and in a lot of these
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Villages there aren't a lot of Tanzanian
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Shillings to go around so people would
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go out into the uh environment Harvest
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cashew nuts take them to Market and
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trade those cashew nuts for whatever
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they needed water treatment systems if
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you wanted in this case and the question
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here is how many cashew nuts would it
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cost them to get the different water
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treatment systems that might help uh in
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terms of promoting their health there
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are a whole bunch of options people
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people could look at from really simple
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ones on the top left a few drops of
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chlorine to Simply taking water putting
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it in a coke bottle putting it on a roof
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in bright sunlight for 24 hours and
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letting the UV take over boiling the
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water ceramic filters made locally to
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this really cool thing made by Proctor
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and Gamble that you would take a little
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powder put it in the brown water on the
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left stir it for 15 minutes and create
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Crystal Clear safe water on the right
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the methods that we used really focused
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on getting people to think about how
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these different systems would align with
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their values and they got to do that by
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actually trying out all the different
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systems and then going to the trouble of
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aligning the Alternatives with their
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values how well did each of those
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systems perform in terms of color taste
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odor safety and so on what people
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actually chose isn't as relevant as the
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fact that they chose they chose water
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treatment systems that really reflected
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what they cared about most deeply in
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their
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communities it's something that we can
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all do it's something that we can all
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learn from from some really really
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beautiful
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people you might be asking yourself if
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at this point I make a lot of decisions
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in every day and you're right um how
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much of this is too much if we're going
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to do this building code thing how much
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do we need to do well I got good news
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and bad news on that front in terms of
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all the decisions that you make in your
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day and we've studied a whole bunch of
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different kinds the best we find is that
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you're about 50% calibrated with your
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values for most of the decisions you
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make that is to say that with the vast
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majority of decisions you make in a day
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you're only hitting 50% of your values
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with each of those decisions and that
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declines sharply as the decisions become
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more complicated so one answer to the
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question is we need to be using our
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building code for all kinds of decisions
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all of our decisions if we
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will the downside to that is that we
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make thousands of decisions every day
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and if we stop to think about each one
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of those choices very carefully it would
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take us an awful lot of time so there's
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another trade-off I want you to think
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about and that's the trade-off between
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something we call accuracy and effort if
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you can think to yourself that this
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decision I've got to get it right it
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requires a high degree of accuracy then
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it probably requires a high degree of
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effort and you should apply the building
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code if you're talking about the
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decisions that you can get wrong and
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still live through your day the
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decisions that you can get wrong and
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make right tomorrow those don't require
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the building code you can sort of learn
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by muddling through and I encourage you
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to do that because life is short and it
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should be fun and sometimes you have as
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much fun making mistakes as you do
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having big successes so think about
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effort and
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accuracy there's something else I want
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you to think about and that is there's
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no such thing as a free
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lunch as you go into decision making
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like this and as you start to think
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about your values and as you start to
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apply the building code and as you start
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to think about how your different
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Alternatives align with what you really
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care about something really interesting
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happens as you make choices in that
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environment you begin to question them
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more so the person that doesn't think
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too much about their values and blindly
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goes through their day making decisions
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is a pretty happy person because they
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don't really think too much about the
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consequences of those choices because
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they didn't stop to think in advance
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about the consequences of those choices
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as you begin to think about those
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consequences and you make your choices
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now you've got a reference point to look
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back on and now that reference point can
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be used in doubt did I make the right
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choice would I have been happier if I
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chose something else would I have
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achieved a better outcome if I had
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chosen something else and that too is
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entirely natural it's part of the human
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condition and you shouldn't look at a
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building code for decision- making as
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something that's making your life
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miserable so what we want to do with the
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building code is we want to add an
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additional step and that step looks at
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decision- making in a new way most of
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you out there and certainly me think
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about often think about decision- making
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as something that we do once we have a
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problem we're faced with an opportunity
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we need to make a decision we make it we
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wipe our hands and move on let me tell
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you another truth decision- making is
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something you do over your lifetime even
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a decision you make today about which
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cell phone to buy or which car to drive
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or which clothes to wear is something
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that you can learn from through time so
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decision- making should be thought of as
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something that's a lifetime activity an
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organic activity that evolves just as
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you evolve over time so we want to add
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an add a step to our building code and
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that is after you've made a choice
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monitor that decision how do you monitor
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that decision you recalibrate yourself
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you look at your decision that you just
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made and you think about to what extent
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ises that decision now that it's
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unfolding for me in my real life address
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the values that I articulated at the
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beginning is it doing a good job I'll
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stick with it is it doing a a poor job I
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might change my decision are my values
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changing well I sure better change my
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decision now so monitor that decision
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learn about outcomes learn about
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yourself and adapt through
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time so I've said a lot is there an
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upside to all of this I think that there
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is and there's a pretty big upside and
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I'm going to go back to what I said at
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the very
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beginning you are defined by the
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decisions that you
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make the decisions that you make project
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the values that you hold to the world
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around you so I think it's incumbent
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upon you it's certainly incumbent upon
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me to take the time to think about what
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my values are to think about how those
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values uh affect the choices that I'm
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about to make and what those choices are
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going to mean for the people around me I
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think we all want to be the best people
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that we can be and to be the best person
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that we can be we've got to start
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thinking carefully about what our values
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are but there's something else as you
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begin to make choices that are in line
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with your values you begin to reflect
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not only your choices to others but your
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values to others those others are your
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family members they're your friends and
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maybe most of all they're are
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leaders I think right now we go out into
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the world and we make a decision every
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four or five years about who we're going
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to choose to lead us in the world and
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that's a decision that we make we sort
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of wipe our hands and move on and forget
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about it but the reality is you can take
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every decision you make in every day of
00:15:28
your life use that to project your
00:15:30
values to those around you to the
00:15:31
leaders above you to hold them
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accountable to hold them accountable to
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what matters to you to what matters to
00:15:37
your community to to what matters to
00:15:39
your
00:15:40
family I think that's
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important
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so that's the truth the truth is your
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decisions matter the truth is that your
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values matter and the truth is until you
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begin to line those two things
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up I don't think we're going to be
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making our world a much better better
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place for a long time but on a positive
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note little incremental changes little
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building codes can help us a whole lot
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and I encourage you to try it tonight on
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your way home and tomorrow and the day
00:16:12
after that thank you
00:16:15
[Applause]
