I disagreed with the decision. I believed we should go a different way. And that was tough. However, I had argued my view and I had felt heard. And in its own weird way that was enough. Contributing to the discussion and being heard was enough for me to go along with the group decision. Perhaps you have had experiences like this too?

Being involved in decision making is not the same as getting your way every time. The emphasis is on the being involved. So when we ask questions of ‘who decides’ which data is sensitive or who it is shared with, we are advocating for involving the person about whom the data is.

And yes of course, you can ‘game’ the system. You can create a decision making group that is full of people who think like you. You can ‘game’ the system by including a token actor to meet some legal or moral requirement and then completely ignore her or him.

This is possible, but why bother? Why go through the effort? the show?

You can choose the other road. The choice is up to you.

Photo by Luke Porter