Some decision making

1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (the Golden Rule). Putting yourself
into the place of others, and thinking of yourself as the object of the decision, can help
you think about fairness in decision making.
2. If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for anyone (Immanuel
Kant’s Categorical Imperative). Ask yourself, “If everyone did this, could the
organization, or society, survive?”
3. If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all (Descartes’ rule of
change). This is the slippery-slope rule: An action may bring about a small change now
that is acceptable, but if it is repeated, it would bring unacceptable changes in the long
run. In the vernacular, it might be stated as “once started down a slippery path, you may
not be able to stop.”
4. Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value (Utilitarian Principle). This
rule assumes you can prioritize values in a rank order and understand the consequences
of various courses of action.
5. Take the action that produces the least harm or the least potential cost (Risk Aversion
Principle). Some actions have extremely high failure costs of very low probability (e.g.,
building a nuclear generating facility in an urban area) or extremely high failure costs of
moderate probability (speeding and automobile accidents). Avoid these high-failure-cost
actions, paying greater attention to high-failure-cost potential of moderate to high
probability.
6. Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else
unless there is a specific declaration otherwise. (This is the ethical “no free lunch”
rule.) If something someone else has created is useful to you, it has value, and you
should assume the creator wants compensation for this work