I have been rereading some older business books I own and the most recent is a book by Laura Nash called Good Intentions Aside. This book came out in the early 1990's after a rash of corporate misbehavior. (History always repeats itself)

Anyway I came across these 7 questions that we should ask ourselves when making a decision that may help balance ethics with expediency.

1. What if I knew there would be a full audit of every decision I made two years from now?

2. What are the likely consequences of my decision one year down the road? Three years down the road?

3. How will this decision affect our customers' trust in us?

4. How would the decision look if it were repeated twenty times?

5. How many times have similar outcomes happened in the past and why?

6. What if I had ten times as much time in which to make the decision, would I make the same one?

7. Have I actually tried to stretch the time frame in which to complete decision making?

Can you think of others?