Choice is an illusion? LO4442

William J. Hobler, Jr. (bhobler@cpcug.org)
Tue, 26 Dec 1995 21:26:07 -0500

Replying to LO4393 --

With respect to whether we have choices or not John Woods wrote on Dec 21

>Actually, what I think your saying here with regard to choice is that
>seemingly important "choices" are those that come when you're trying to
>understand a situation in a new way. If we are unsure of something, this
>usually suggests, at least according to how I see the world, we need to
>gather more information, think about things, look for order, and when we
>see it, then act.

In mulling over both my original comments and John's response I see the
choice as being between what I see as the organization's values and my
values. The uncertantity and distress I described seems more associated
with the uncertainty of how the organization will react. Will I be out of
a job tomorrow?

In the case of real choice I think we are forced by situations to choose
with much less information than we would like. While I would prefer to
discern the end game we often must make the best judgement concerning the
next move and hope we can pull it off later. In most business and
government decisions they are taken without a good model of the dynamics
of the situation. It is then that the decision maker must rely on, not a
model of the business, but on the standards and values s/he perceives as
the best guidelines for effective decisions.

--
"William J. Hobler, Jr." <bhobler@cpcug.org>