Time for Decision!™ | Decision-Making Training Activity

Having just taken off in a passenger jet from Khartoum Airport you have a problem with the flaps. There’s no imminent danger but you need to land for repairs. Returning to Khartoum is not as good an idea as it might appear - there’s no chance of re-fuelling there so you’d have to wait - and that has a massive knock-on effect on your airline’s schedules. Cairo would normally be an option but they are experiencing severe sandstorms. As your pilot hours tick away, there’s the added problem of the availability of relief crews to fly the plane on to its final destination in London. While you are weighing up these and other constraints you are of course using up fuel - and that in itself narrows down the options. A decision is needed - and fast!

An audio recording simulates radio transmissions and the growing sense of urgency, which adds realism to the task. And regular time announcements put teams under even more pressure as they work out how best to get back to Heathrow, with the minimum of disruption.

Clear lessons emerge about decision-making processes and the need to have a calm, logical approach under pressure.

• To practice handling tough decisions under pressure
• To maintain a logical approach to problem solving
• To have a sense of urgency but to avoid panic
• To take all the constraints and variables into account
• To reach consensus decisions within the team

1. Introduce the activity
2. Issue Team Briefs and map
3. Allow 15 minutes for teams to elicit further information from you (supply them with the appropriate datacards that are only available on written request)
4. Allow a further 5 minutes for discussion, then announce take off and play the audio recording
5. After 10-15 minutes, teams hand in a revised Flight Schedule
6. Discuss what happened and encourage groups to share the decisions they made with others. Did they all make the same decision? What factors led them to their decisions?
7. Discuss best practice and agree a decision-making model the teams can adopt at work.

Full guidance supplied in the Trainer’s Notes.

• Trainer’s Notes
• Audio Recording (MP3 file)
• Team Briefs
• Chart
• Set of 12 Datacards
• Planning Sheet
• Decision Sheet

This activity is supplied digitally via the Northgate Trainerhub. No delivery charges apply.

This Northgate Training activity comes with a five-year licence for repeat use with up to 24 participants at a time, for use by Trainers based at one licence-holding site.

All Trainers physically based at the same office location can access the Northgate resources during the five-year term, including the digital resources supplied on the Trainerhub via your own site-specific Trainer Dashboard. If you have Trainers based at other locations, and/or remote workers, who would like to access and use the Northgate resources, we can advise further depending on your requirements.

For further information on our licence terms please view the Northgate Licence Agreement.