Abstract

What Can I Live with, as a Person and a Professional? Our personal moral wisdom is the lens through which we define reality, morality, and practicality. But how do we bring these together and make final decisions about what is right?The answer may sound radical, but it is actually realistic. When we face hard, complex decisions, we ultimately decide what is right by deciding what is right. As a senior executive at one of the world’s largest banks phrased it, “You can keep turning over rocks trying to discover what’s right, but you won’t find it. You have to decide what’s right.”What actually happens in the moments of our final decisions? The reality is that no one knows. We do make final decisions, and we give reasons for them. But why do we choose one option, which is justified by strong reasons, rather than another, which is also justified by strong reasons?Serious researchers, along with social scientists, philosophers, religious thinkers, and poets, have given us a variety of incomplete and sometimes incompatible accounts of what should happen and what does happen when we make final decisions. For contemporary neuroscience, our ultimate moments of decision remain a mystery.Because our final choices resemble black boxes, it becomes especially important to ask and answer the four fundamental questions – What really matters, what is moral, what is practical, and what is right? By doing this, we shape and constrain what goes into the black box. Our personal moral wisdom doesn’t come with guarantees, but by thoughtfully answering the four fundamental questions, we load the dice in favor of responsible, practical decisions in our leadership moments.