Improving Decision Making in Others with Bruce Wilson

Oct 8, 2025

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

How can we improve the decision making in others? When we are delivering adventure to others, it isn’t just the leader that needs to have good judgment. In every activity, there is a degree of decision-making skills that participants are going to need to be able to have, and if they don’t, the odds of achieving a good outcome start to go down.

There is of course another dimension to this in that many guides and instructors aren’t just leading guests, friends or family. They may also be supervising or working with other guides or instructors.

In this episode, we are joined by master guide, instructor, outdoor educator and friend of the show Bruce Wilson. Bruce returns to Delivering Adventure to explore how we can help others to improve their decision-making skills.

When it comes to outdoor education and leadership training, Bruce is literally a Jack of all trades. Bruce is an ACMG Hiking Guide. He is a sea kayak guide and guide trainer for the Association of Sea Kayak Guides. He is an avalanche educator for Avalanche Canada.

Bruce is a certified instructor in the Wim Hof Method, he has a master’s degree in leadership, and is a Vision Quest instructor, just to name a few of his many qualifications and certifications.

He currently instructs the Outdoor Recreation Management Program at Capilano University in North Vancouver. He also provides coaching and guiding through his company Warrior Wolf Guide Services and Coaching.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Bruce shares key strategies that leaders can use to help others to improves their decision making.

Key takeaways

How can we help others to make better decisions?

Trust Them: Whether we like it or not, we have to trust the decision making and judgement of others. Micromanaging everything is not a sustainable option for anyone in a leadership position, and it can be argued that that isn’t even leadership!

Create Opportunities: We need to give people the opportunity to make decisions. Decision-making is a skill. To develop skills, people need time on task to practice.

Right Process: Teaching them the right process can help to set them up for success. Part of this requires us to model and then explain what a good decision-making process is.

Go to Completion: It is important to let people bring their decisions to completion: this allows them to see and experience the consequences firsthand. This increases learning.

Take it Seriously: Treat every moment as if it is real. This can eliminate the risk of developing bad habits. It also maximizes the learning.

Guest Bio

Bruce is a certified instructor in the Wim Hof Method, he has a master’s degree in leadership, and is a Vision Quest instructor, just to name a few of his many qualifications and certifications.