The single most useful question in any difficult decision is the boring one: what would I do if I had another day to think about this? Most of the time, the answer is meaningfully different from the answer you were about to commit to. Most of the time, you have that day.
When to be fast, when to be slow.
Decisions that are easily reversible should be made fast. Decisions that are not should be made slowly, in writing, after at least one good night of sleep. The number of operators who confuse the two categories is enormous, and the cost of the confusion is most of the bad decisions in any career.
Get into the habit of asking, out loud: is this a one-way door or a two-way door? Treat them accordingly.
“Move fast on two-way doors. Move slowly, deliberately, and in writing on one-way doors.”
Pick your counsel deliberately.
Most leaders ask the people physically nearest them when a hard decision arrives. That selection bias is usually wrong. Build, in advance, a short list of people whose judgment you trust on different kinds of decisions, and reach for that list when the situation matters.
The best advisors disagree with you sometimes. If everyone on your list agrees with you, you have built a comfort group, not an advisory group.
The discipline of a one-page memo.
For any decision you will be living with for more than a year, write a one-page memo before you commit. State the decision, the alternatives, the reasoning, and what would change your mind. Read it the next morning. Most bad decisions do not survive the next morning.
Save the memos. A folder of decisions and their reasoning is the most useful self-education tool a leader can build. Year three of that practice and you will know things about your own judgment that no book could have taught you.
- 01Identify one-way and two-way doors before deciding.
- 02Build an advisory list in advance. Reach for it when the situation matters.
- 03Write a one-page memo for any decision lasting more than a year.
- 04Read the memo the next morning. Most bad decisions do not survive it.