What Are You Doing To Prepare For Pressure?

In a small Midwestern town, a fire tore through a duplex. By the time the fire department arrived, all the people living in the two apartments were safely on the street. The captain of the unit assigned was a veteran of the department who had seen thousands of fires like this one before. So, immediately, she instructed her firefighters to work from the back to start containment. Then they began dousing water on the blaze, but to the captain's surprise, the flames only roared back.

The captain thought it was unusual, but decided to move inside the home anyway, where the heat remained intense. But instinctively, something did not feel right. The captain, whose pressure decisions are always scrutinized, immediately ordered her crew out of the building. Her decision, based on both her prior experiences as well as her general feel for the situation, forced her to yell, "Get Out." As soon as the last firefighter vacated the building, the top floor collapsed, and the fire raged even more.

What caused the captain to make her decision?

Well, as Billie Jean King once said, she "earned the right." Her experience of battling many fires before provided her the right instincts to detect something here was wrong.

Gary Klein knows all about firefighters. He also knows a great deal about making decisions under pressure. Klein is a research psychologist famous for pioneering in the field of "naturalistic decision making." By studying experts such as firefighters in their natural environment, he discovered that laboratory models of decision making could not describe it under uncertainty. Throughout his studies and in his book, Sources of Power, he developed a model called: Recognition-Primed Decision. It’s used to make quick, effective decisions when the stakes are at their highest.

In the model, the decision-maker evaluates two or three options immediately, then in his or her mind, compares them all before selecting the first course of action. Klein understands that experience makes his model work, which then begs the question, "How can I become a better decision-maker when I lack in knowledge?” Simple, each day, spend time practicing high-pressure decisions in your field during low-pressure moments.

Let's pretend you dream of becoming a head basketball coach. In the coming days, you’ll have plenty of games to watch. Yet, instead of just watching, immerse yourself in the game, coach both teams, and then practice making decisions in real-time on both sides. Make comprehensive notes of the game as well as each decision. Start a file for every game that you can quickly refer back to and review. Before long, without having true sideline experience, you will have real-time expertise, which will allow you to make a quicker and more informed decision when the actual pressure moments arise.

You earn the right by first gaining experience. Then the pressure doesn’t really feel like pressure.

Right, Billie Jean?

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