“Good Luck. Make good decisions.” And in a conversation full of “Be careful” and “Stay safe”, Zander got my attention and kept it. We were leaving for a trip up into the Alaska ranges, and whilst it would seem old hat now at the time it was a big deal, and very much into the unknown for my climbing partner and I.

I’m not skilled at small talk and so the generic be safe’s and stay careful’s always feel a little off to me. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the underlying message behind them and the sentiment that someone cares for my wellbeing, but they somehow fail to cut to the heart of the matter in the same way that “Make good decisions” did and continues to nearly 20 years later.

Taking the opportunity to assess while rigging an abseil in Kalang

There is something powerful and empowering in it and the underlying message becomes: You are capable of making good choices. Own the process. Own the choices. Own the outcomes. Thinking back on it maybe that is why it resonated so much. It was about empowerment, ownership, action where previously there had been only restraint and caution. In my mid 20’s that was as much thought as I was ready to give it, but it has stuck with me as a sort of personal motto (which I strive to live up to), and as I’ve matured I’ve become ready for an answer to the obvious question: “How do I know I’m making good decisions?”.

FACETS is an acronym put together by Ian Mcammon in the early naughties. Building on the work of psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tsversky it was designed to highlight common deficiencies in our decision making (Heuristic Traps) and to offer a tool to temper the choices we make in high consequence environments. It was put together with avalanche terrain and outcomes particularly in mind, and I first came across it in NZ on an Avo course way back when. It tends to be very snow and avalanche specific, often the examples given will highlight particular ski runs and sets of circumstances so narrow that I must admit I’d pretty much forgotten it until more recently.

A couple of years back I was training on a canyon course tailored to people who were already experienced guides. The lead trainer, Cillian Kennedy (a hugely experienced outdoor feller, and full IFMGA Guide) suggested FACETS could be a good tool for us in the dynamic and potentially consequential advanced canyon guiding discipline. After seeing his lesson, I was in complete agreement. I’ve adopted the tool and found it useful as a sort of shorthand when making decisions with a team to frame our thinking and to make sure we are looking at the same things. The problem, if there is one, tends to be in explaining it to folks who aren’t skiers. You can see the moment their eyes glaze or when they start thinking “this doesn’t apply to me.” and fair enough too. After a long road trip, with (Office Elf) Bridie Campbell, and a lot of podcasts a new acronym came to mind. One that would make these tools more available to a broader audience and continue in the spirit of empowerment, ownership, and action that a good decision-making tool should provide.

Before we dive into the acronym ACCESS, we should better understand the problem we are solving, and that means talking about Heuristic Traps or Cognitive Bias. Essentially Heuristics are mental shortcuts our brains use to make quick, efficient judgments. These shortcuts work brilliantly most of the time, but Kahneman and Tversky showed that in certain situations, they can lead to predictable, systematic errors in judgment. They called these errors ‘cognitive biases’ or ‘heuristic traps.’ Daniel Kahneman was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for this work, so you would have to think there is something in it. By understanding these traps, we can recognise when we are most at risk of making these errors, and give ourselves the best chance to avoid them, and so here they are.

Cillian Kennedy in his element

Acceptance, or the desire to fit into the group we are with and not stand out in a negative way. The danger here is that we don’t speak up about a concern we have or a danger we can see as we don’t want to be perceived as a killjoy or wet blanket. Potentially this robs the group of a different perspective, like the quiet person at the back who notices the storm clouds building and the group seperating but doesn’t want to be a bother.

Comfort Zone, or Complacency. This is the idea that we let our guard down in locations and/or situations we are familiar with. Often, we see what we expect to and fail to recognise what has changed, and so we act on potentially outdated information, like taking a familiar shortcut without realising a landslide has wiped out the track, or failing to respect a climb because the grade is far lower that we can comfortably climb. Pubilius Syrus, and Chaucer expressed it well with the concept that “Familiarity breeds contempt”.

Commitment and Consistency. This can be seen from a few angles. The Sunk Cost Fallacy, or the idea that we have committed resources to something and will lose them if we change our mind is one. Another is that we need to be consistent with a plan, or what we have said we will do. This can mean we fail to act on new information or changing conditions, like pushing on into a worsening storm just to get to the campsite we’d planned on.

Expert Halo. Few people enjoy questioning someone they perceive as knowing more about a subject than they do (an expert) meaning we are more likely to set our own critical thinking to one side and follow rather than speaking up about a perceived risk. There are a few dangers here, one is that the expert is also human and may be falling prey to Heuristic Traps as well. Another is that we can sometimes elevate people into the role of an expert when they are not ready to fill that position: Imagine a beginner who has joined a bushwalking FB group, they are in awe of the group admin and happy to follow any decision they make, but the admin has only been bushwalking for 3 months themselves.

Scarcity. Think FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). This might lead us to make a choice to do something we otherwise would not so we can make the most of a limited opportunity. It could be squeezing a canyoning trip into a tight weather window, climbing into dangerous terrain to make a first ascent, or disregarding warning signs to make the most out of limited annual leave.

Social Proof & Social Media. The idea that because we see someone else doing something it is ok for us to do it too. Often we follow without knowing anything about the group in front, they could be more experienced / skilled / equipped than us, they could also be making a bad choice and just getting lucky… Social Media can be a good example of this, we can see the pics and the reels and assume that’s all there is to it, completely missing the realities of safely getting to the location, or all the emergency services called out respond to people trying to get the iconic shot on the wrong side of a hand rail that get it wrong…

Dusk talking through a plan before getting on the climb

And here we are, back at the beginning, back at that simple, powerful advice: “Make good decisions.” ACCESS isn’t a magic wand that guarantees a perfect outcome. The outdoors will always be a place of uncertainty. And consequence. And reward. It is a framework for a better conversation, a conversation with yourself and just as importantly, with your partners. A way to pause, check our biases, and take true ownership of our choices before the consequences demand it of us.

To help you take this into the field, we’ve put together a simple PDF summary of the ACCESS model that you can download (scroll to bottom). Print it out, stick it in your first aid kit, save it to your phone, share it with your mates. Think of it as a quiet reminder in your pocket and a checklist for the next time things are strating to feel real.

Because at the end of the day, being careful is good, but being empowered to make, act on, and own a good decision is even better.

Owning the decision to go for it