The Mechanics of Effective Decision Making

First, let’s define what “working on the fly” actually means. It doesn’t mean winging it, or flying by the seat of your pants, and it’s certainly not random guesswork. In business scenarios, working on the fly implies a leader’s ability to make effective decisions in situations where they may not have all the facts, or enough time to think through all the variables.

Have you watched an expert chess player at work? When they look at the board, they see many outcomes unfolding in front of them, and thus they can think a few steps ahead. How are they able to do this? Through years of practice, expert chess players build up a repository of experiential knowledge. Over time, this mastery of small moves builds into a solid database that empowers them to make better decisions when they face an opponent.

Someone who is playing chess for the first time may know the rules, but won’t have an experiential database to tap into. As a result, if this individual were to try and play the game ‘off the cuff’, it’s likely that they’d lose. To work on the fly, you need to have the experience to back it up.