"The proposal of Naturalistic Decision-Making (NDM). that people rely on recognition-primed decisions (RPD)." #readingToday

The proposal of NDM is that people rely on recognition-primed decisions (RPD). According to this, the decision-maker tries to match the characteristics of the current situation with a generic situation and use that to come up with a possible course of action. This is then compared to the constraints imposed by the situation, to determine if it is good enough. If that is not the case, it is rejected and a new possible course of action is generated. In relation to ETTO, RPD is clearly a trade-off of thoroughness for efficiency and in this case a rather deliberate one. (Not only does RPD as a whole represent ETTO, but the functions or steps of RPD do as well.) The basis for the decision is the recognition that an action makes sense in the situation together with the quick judgement that the action may produce an acceptable outcome. The fact that the situation changes rapidly, as in fire fighting, means that there is little if any advantage in making a more deliberate comparison of alternatives. The dynamics of such situations makes them inherently intractable, hence it renders any kind of rational or contemplative solution inappropriate. Under such conditions, doing is usually better than thinking.

The ETTO Principle, Erik Hollnagel