Resoundingly Human: The Tham Luang cave rescue: Decision-making with the highest stakes

For nearly 3 weeks during the summer of 2018, the attention of millions across the globe was focused on northern Thailand where a massive effort was underway to locate and rescue 12 members of a boys’ soccer team and their coach who were trapped underground in the rapidly flooding Tham Luang cave.

Among those watching was Yael Grushka-Cockayne with the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Management. As she watched this incredible rescue effort unfold, she recognized it as a massive and complex study in risk management and decision-making, one in which the highest stakes were involved. Today I’m thrilled to be joined by Yael to take a look back at this event and share the insight gained from her own case study of a rescue that, had different decisions been made at key points along the way, could have had a very different outcome.