The 3 T’s for life…

Tolerate, Treat, Terminate! What does it mean?

I was thinking recently about this terminology used in the Police for managing risk making decisions.

In the Police senior managers often have to make big risk decisions on operations. Often the stakes are very high. This always involve a high degree of balancing risk versus reward.

In any risk making decision there are always 3 options;

Tolerate – You can accept the risk. Upon proper consideration you determine the risk is minimal and outweighed by the potential benefits.

Treat – You put measures in place to mitigate the risk. In a Policing concept this may involve sending in Armed Police instead of unarmed. Perhaps authorising the use of taser or having a dog unit as back up.

Terminate – If the risk is too much you cancel the proposed plan of action and proceed no further.

There is another model which looks at the seriousness of the potential consequence versus the likelihood of it happening.

For example if the potential consequence is that someone gets a minor injury but there is a low likelihood of this happening then it will be a risk worth taking if it leads to the arrest of a dangerous criminal.

If the risk is that someone gets seriously injured but the likelihood of that happening is very low it may still be a risk worth taking.

If the potential risk is someone gets killed and the likelihood of that happening is high clearly the risk will not be worth it.

Recently I have been thinking about this in a non policing context. The same principles can be applied to normal life for anyone.

You are in a job you hate… you have the same 3 choices;

1) Accept it and deal with it (Tolerate)

2) Do something to make it better, this could be changing your attitude to the work, taking on some additional responsibilities, challenging management, trying to change whatever it is that makes the job unenjoyable for you. (Treat)

3) You leave the job (Terminate)

It is simple when you think about it!

You may break this down further;

If I stay in this job what is the worst case scenario (risk)? This may be you spend 8 hours of each day unhappy! Then you ask yourself can I live with that outcome? If you can then you may decide to tolerate the situation and do nothing. If you cant tolerate this then you need to move to either treat it or terminate it.

When considering the risk of taking action or not, you should consider what is the actual likelihood of that risk happening and how serious would it be if it did?

This is the same in relationships. Imagine you are in an unhappy relationship…

1) You accept that is the way it is and carry on (Tolerate)

2) You make efforts to make it better (Treat)

3) You end the relationship (Terminate)

In a Martial Arts concept think of competitions. You are scared to compete because you are worried about losing…

1) You can accept the risk of losing and do it anyway in the knowledge losses make you stronger and increase learning rates. If you lose it is a short term thing with no long term adverse affects. (Tolerate)

2) You make efforts to minimise the risk of you losing first by training hard, adding extra sessions, working on your fitness and skill level. (Treat)

3) You decide the risk is too great and never enter competitions. (Terminate)

Obviously this is a simplified model of what will be going through your head in any one of these scenarios but ultimately it always boils down to;

– Accept the risk and do it anyway

– Mitigate the risk to acceptable levels

– Remove the risk

The most important thing whatever the decision is you own it!

In a Policing concept if I made the decision we were going to accept a risk and do something and it went wrong then that is on me. I own the consequences of it.

If I chose not to do something because the risk is too high and this leads to a negative result then that is on me also.

Remember people will judge you whatever!

They will judge you if you do something and they will judge you if you don’t. That is life.

Making a decision is always better then not making one.

So whatever big decision you are facing in life, be that in work, relationships, family or otherwise, look at the risks of doing something, look at the risks of not doing it and then make a decision whether to Tolerate, Treat or Terminate.

But most important OWN THE DECISION!

If you are unhappy in your job but decide to stay then own that decision. If you are unhappy with your weight but decide not to join a gym then own that decision. Do not spend your days complaining about your situation if it one you have chosen to accept.

As Brian Keane says in his book ‘Rewire your mindset’,

‘you are not a tree, if you don’t like where you are you then move’!