How to Tell What’s “Right” in a Complex Situation

By Linda Fisher Thornton

To understand a complex situation, you first have to WANT to see it as it really is. This means letting go of preconceived ideas of what might be true, and being open to what may unfold as you learn more.

After approaching the situation with this open mindset, you need to get more information. As you know from completing puzzles with lots of pieces, a few pieces do not show you the whole picture. As you complete a jigsaw puzzle, you start to see parts of the picture and begin to get a sense of it, but you’re definitely still not seeing it as it really is.

You need to keep getting more information until you can see many different facets and perspectives on the situation.

“Being honest is not simply telling the truth and avoiding deceitful behaviors; it requires leaders to be as open as possible and to describe reality fully, accurately, and in sufficient detail.”
Principles of Management, 5.4 Ethics at the Organizational Level, Rice University,openstax.org

Then you need to put all of that information that you’ve gathered through multiple ethical lenses to determine the “Right Thing To Do.”

Does this intentional process to determine the right thing to do take some effort? Yes. But it also prevents costly and life altering ethical mistakes, and infuses your life and leadership with meaning and integrity. That makes it priceless.