Social changemakers routinely operate in high-stakes, resource-scarce environments where the margin for error is thin. Early-stage leaders often lack capital, staff, time, information, and reserve capacity, yet are still expected to make consequential decisions under pressure.

This interactive session explores how founders and leaders can make better decisions when their personal and organizational resources are depleted. Rather than treating performance under pressure as a matter of individual toughness, the session reframes elite performance under constraint as the ability to reduce the number, complexity, and timing of decisions required in moments of stress.

The Social Innovation and Change Initiative (SICI) and Harvard Innovation Labs are delighted to host Joseph Choi, former Navy SEAL and Berkeley Haas MBA, and Akonkwa Mubagwa, CEO of Winko, HKS ‘26 MC/MPA, Berkeley Haas MBA, and engineer from École Polytechnique de Louvain, for a practical session on decision-making in challenging contexts.

Joe will draw on nine years of experience making high-consequence decisions under extreme physical and cognitive stress. Akonkwa will draw on his own experience navigating resource depletion while building zero-downtime energy infrastructure for hospitals across emerging markets. Together, they will help participants understand how scarcity changes judgment, how to triage decisions, how to recognize their own degradation patterns, and how to pre-commit to decision rules before a crisis hits.

Willing participants will also take part in a short simulation in which time pressure increases and new information arrives unevenly, forcing them to decide with imperfect information.

All HUID holders are welcome.