Day 20 of 21 Days of Futures Fit Learning Ethical Decision Making

24 Jun 2026 · 2 min

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2:27

In this segment of the "21 Days of Futures Fit Learning" series, Charlotte Kemp explains that decisions are not made in a vacuum but are deeply rooted in underlying worldviews, myths, metaphors, and cultural narratives. She introduces Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) as a futures‑thinking tool that helps reveal the hidden layers beneath the visible data and systems we typically operate on. Kemp argues that our mental models and fundamental narratives shape our beliefs, actions, and decisions more than we realize, and that these assumptions often go unexamined because they are uncomfortable. Ethics, she contends, is not an after‑the‑fact add‑on but is embedded in how we define problems, select options, and set priorities. To make more ethical and future‑oriented decisions, she proposes a set of reflective questions that shift focus from "Is this the right decision?" to probing hidden assumptions, missing perspectives, and whose voices are absent.

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One does not simply make decisions. We make them from a worldview. One of the most useful tools in futures thinking is called causal layered analysis. I know it sounds a mouthful, but it demonstrates that we very often operate only from the visible layer of our data and our systems right at the top of this iceberg model. But the systems that we use at work in society are based off our worldviews, and those worldviews come from the myths and metaphors. Of a culture or of a people. Our mental models and fundamental narratives have a much stronger effect on our decision-making than we imagine. We don't typically question the environment that we're in, the values in our society, the procedures in our workplace, because they seem to be the very fabric of our reality. But they're not accidental. They are constructed. And sometimes it is necessary to deconstruct them. If we are proactively molding and shaping a better future, then we need to be courageous enough to examine the lenses that we use to see the future and to see our present and our past. What are the hidden assumptions that shape our beliefs, actions, and decisions? What do we believe about what customers value and how business should be done? What does success look like? How do we define it? What trade-offs are acceptable? Who is expendable? These assumptions often go unexamined because they're uncomfortable, and if we allow them to remain unexamined, then we will carry them into the future and then complain in that distant time that this wasn't the future we thought we would be in. Ethics is not something you apply once a decision has been made. It is embedded in how you define the problem. What options you consider and what you prioritize. Here are some questions to get you started. Instead of asking, is this the right decision? You can begin to ask, what assumptions am I making? What perspective am I missing?
And whose voice am I not hearing?