Two-Way Door Decisions

Very rarely can decisions not be undone.  For this reason, I like to think of decisions as two-way doors: you walk through them, but you can always walk back if needed. 

Too often I see people paralyzed into inaction because they are too concerned with making the wrong decision.  This inaction “trap” leads to inevitable delays and costs as they attempt to try to gather 100% of the information needed to make a “perfect” decision.  This isn’t reality.  No matter how much information we gather, there are likely to be some unknowns or some uncontrollable vectors, e.g., how market pricing will move, how customers will react, or even just unexpected wars (as I learnt recently living in Dubai!) – to think otherwise is a fallacy.  Sometimes we just have to make the best decision with the information we have available at the time.  When we think of decisions as two-way doors, it means we’re acknowledging that if the decision is later found to be inopportune, it can be reversed or amended.  This allows progress forward rather than being stuck in a holding pattern. 

It takes courage to acknowledge that the wrong decision was made, but if we take some of the pressure off by not expecting the perfect – and thus only – decision every time, we allow people the freedom and confidence to course correct quickly.  Else I’ve seen too many times when people want to double-down on their initial decision because to acknowledge otherwise feels like their personal failure.  This is insecure leadership and as my girl Brene Brown likes to say, “choose courage over comfort”.  Being able to acknowledge a wrong decision partially comes down to the individual, partially comes down to the manager, and partially comes from the corporate culture.  All should be fostering a sense of security. 

As an individual you likely can’t control the corporate culture too much but at the least, if you are a people manager you can coach your subordinates on thinking this way, and create a “safe space” for them to practice it. 

If you have a boss who’s stuck in the trap of inaction due to wanting perfect information and perfect certainty, I feel you, I had a boss once who was really bad at making decisions.  Because he would never make one.  He was too concerned about making the wrong decision that he wouldn’t make one at all.  He would request rework upon rework of the same analysis in order to delay a decision claiming more information was required, unknowns needed to be eliminated, every possible choice needed to be adequately considered (and instead only succeeding in frustrating everyone around him!).  This is what I call motion, not action – it’s akin to walking on a treadmill, you’re working a lot and producing a lot of sweat, but you’re not actually making any progress forward towards your destination. 

When you see this happening in your boss, well you probably can’t change them, but you can encourage them by taking ownership of the decision yourself (of course outlining the reasons for your decision, discussing implications of the different alternatives and why they make less sense at this time, advising how any decision can be subsequently amended if needed, and casually reminding people that you don’t want to get into the trap of “analysis paralysis” and miss the opportunity).  I found this approach worked particularly well as it meant I became his “scape goat” if something subsequently changed our minds as we had more information and time went by.  I’m joking.  But I’m also not.  (And don’t worry what other people will think if you end up being wrong, most of them will recognize that you were the one who turned motion into action and will respect you for it – at least in my experience that’s been the case.)

AI can act as a great coach if you don’t have a boss who can help guide you and/or hasn’t created a safe space for trial and error.  Or if your boss is the one you want to convince that a particular decision is a two-way door to get them “unstuck”, AI can help you structure your arguments whilst trying to unpack your boss’s motivations and ultimately understanding what’s driving their hesitations.

Thoughts and opinions are purely my own, no ChatGPT here.  The above is just a brief conceptual summary, for more specific details, feel free to use ChatGPT.  I’d suggest a prompt along the lines of:

I am faced with a decision regarding [explain] and am concerned I am making the wrong decision.  Can you please help me understand the implications if this is the wrong decision, and advise how the decision can be reversed or amended if it turns out to be the wrong one?  Appreciate if you can provide colour on (1) warning signs that it was the wrong decision and (2) how to assess how long to give it before amending the decision and course correcting.  Please ask if you have any questions to help in your assessment.