Below find a link to the High Stakes video, a one hour SBS Insight program in which I join many people discussing how people make high-stakes decisions in the face of life and death.
Decision Making is an extremely complex topic. Jenny Brockie hosts the discussion, surfacing decisions that many people made and how these decisions changed their lives (for good and bad) forever.
Summary Decision Making
I’d loved to discuss the neuroscience and theories behind decision making – but there wasn’t time. So I provided SBS with a summary for decision making, the briefest overview of a chapter in my next book.
Post Traumatic Stress (PTS)
This SBS program would be an excellent segue into another program on post traumatic stress.
The atmosphere during the live interviews was was more emotional than portrayed in this video. One of the guests explained with emotional detail how he still suffers 14 years after an event during which he made critical decisions and saved many lives.
Please believe a person who tells you they are suffering PTS. PTS is real. Sully suffered PTS after US Airways Flight 1549. I suffered PTS after flight QF32. Both of us sought professional help and returned to full health.
Be empathetic to people who tell you they are suffering PTS. Care and try to guide them to professional (psychological) help.
There can be growth from trauma. In the same way that we learn, adjust and improve through failure, there can be growth from PTS.
Verbal Overshadowing eases mental trauma. So talk to those who suffer and share their grief. You will speed their recovery.
QF32 
Thanks for the heads up Rich.
Interesting to hear how people dealt with their specific events, and the subsequent emotional consequences.
Thanks for the heads up on this interesting program.
Fascinating how humans make decisions in times of trauma or potential dire consequences in an environment of pragmatic versus emotional considerations.
I’m a technical person and in times of potential crisis recognise in my self that instinct, both trained and personal, kick in and deal with the problem leaving emotion out of it until afterwards.
However as I get older I also see the value of making decisions with some emotion and if managed well can enhance the quality of the decision.