“Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible—one-way doors—and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before. We can call these Type 1 decisions. But most decisions aren’t like that—they are changeable, reversible—they’re two-way doors. If you’ve made a suboptimal Type 2 decision, you don’t have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through. Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high-judgment individuals or small groups.”
—Jeff Bezos
The distinction between reversible and irreversible decisions should continuously inform the CEO’s decision-making process.
I call it decision triage: the practice of stepping back and examining the nature of the decision before deciding how to approach it.
If it’s an insignificant decision, reversible or not, get it off your plate immediately. Delegate it down to someone who can make a more informed call based on their position on the team. In fact, set up a process so such decisions never even reach your plate. Empower people to handle them on their own.
If it’s a significant decision that can be reversed, devote the requisite time and thought, but only in so far as analysis serves you. Recognize that you can always course-correct on this decision. If your mind and gut tell you it’s worth a try, decide rapidly and see what happens.
But if it’s a significant decision that can’t be reversed, you’ll need to devote more time. Assign a devil’s advocate (and be your own contrarian too). Ponder unforeseen outcomes. You still can’t ruminate on it indefinitely—the need for a certain speed always applies—but the deliberation Bezos describes above is warranted.
As CEOs, decisions are the essential substance of our day-to-day jobs. Keep a notepad, a Word document, or a mental space for your decision triage, placing them in the proper category:
(1) insignificant
(2) significant and reversible
(3) significant and irreversible
Then devote most of your wisdom and processing power to the latter two, respecting a clear distinction between the doors you can walk back through and the doors you can’t.
No matter how many times CEOs proclaim in the press that the acquisition, the layoff, the pivot was “an easy decision,” rarely was it so. The best we can do is approach the hard choices we are asked to make with thoughtfulness—and using the appropriate triage process.