For ‘one-way door’ decisions, ensure thorough scrutiny and gather all necessary information upfront, involving diverse experts to make it well-informed and accountable.
Actively listen for what is not being said in meetings or reports, as omissions and ‘white spaces’ often hide critical issues or team discomfort that need addressing.
Before making a critical decision, imagine a future failure and consider if you could logically explain your decision-making process in retrospect, ensuring accountability and foresight.
Encourage team members to proactively identify and articulate worries and risks, as a team that is ‘worried’ and transparent about problems is more effective than one that reports ’low risk’.
Ask multiple layers of follow-up questions to assess a team’s or individual’s depth of knowledge, identifying those who lack comprehensive understanding beyond surface-level reports.
Create an environment that protects innovators, especially when experiments fail because they were ’too early,’ recognizing that calculated risks and failures are essential for groundbreaking research.
If you are not comfortable or sure about a decision, stand firm and delay it, even if you are the only one, and allow for a cooling-off period or alternative input channels.
Do not solely focus on the critical path; actively monitor items that are currently off the critical path, as they can become significant problems later if neglected.
Ensure all relevant leaders, from top to bottom, agree on and commit to core priorities (e.g., mission success over speed) to prevent costly mistakes and maintain focus.
Foster a culture and mechanism for reporting ‘almost mistakes’ or near misses, as learning from these incidents is crucial for preventing actual errors in large projects.
Actively seek and integrate diversity of thought and experience (e.g., from different industries or backgrounds) within teams to better adapt to changing environments and challenges.
Adopt the scientific mindset of acknowledging ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t yet know’ as the answer to complex questions, as it fosters progress and discovery rather than false certainty.
For emerging commercial industries, governments should act as anchor customers, providing stable demand and taking initial risks without seeking to own or monopolize the industry.
Implement proactive regulation for new frontiers like space mining, learning from Earth’s environmental mistakes to protect these environments before extensive commercial activity begins.
For publicly funded scientific endeavors, adopt a policy of sharing all data to maximize its usefulness, enhance collective knowledge, and ‘rise all boats’ in science.
As a leader, focus on creating the environment in which problems can be solved and holding your leaders accountable for solving them, rather than trying to solve every problem yourself.
Recognize the point where more information adds ambiguity rather than clarity; at this stage, make the decision based on existing preparation rather than delaying further.
Pay attention to your gut feelings, especially when red flags appear, and develop the ability to act on those intuitions rather than dismissing them.
Transparently communicate the rationale behind significant decisions to your team, walking them through your thought process to foster understanding and rigor within the organization.
For long-term strategic planning, consult independent thought leaders and national academies to identify the most important and urgent questions, creating stable, non-partisan priorities.
Governments should focus on undertaking high-risk, cutting-edge research and frontier-pushing endeavors that the private sector cannot yet afford or justify due to risk or cost.
Cultivate an environment of transparency within the team so that problems are communicated early, enabling proactive management and resolution.
When fostering innovation, balance the principle of public data sharing with respecting intellectual property rights to support commercialization and innovation.
Identify the optimal ‘right speed’ for tasks and projects, understanding that going too slowly is not necessarily safer and can hinder effectiveness.
Recognize that the speed of regulation often lags behind the speed of innovation, and actively work to adapt regulatory frameworks faster to keep pace.