A Decision Is Not a Defense

The responsibility to decide includes the responsibility to reconsider. Give people a direction, explain the judgment behind it, and stay available to evidence that the direction needs to change.

A decision brings relief. People can stop waiting and begin the work. An uncertain conversation becomes a plan, and the plan gives everyone something to move toward.

Then the work starts answering back.

An assumption turns out to be wrong. A customer uses the product differently than we expected. The people carrying the plan discover a difficulty that was invisible when we approved it. The decision has met a part of the world our explanation did not contain.

That is information we need while we can still use it.

What certainty can cost

I like being able to explain what I think. In my writing, I have also asked what it takes to remain open when a conversation reveals something I missed. Leadership makes that question consequential. Other people may already be spending time and money on the answer I gave them.

It is easy to become invested in the explanation. We have said it aloud, persuaded people, and asked them to act. Reconsidering means admitting that something has changed, including our understanding.

If people learn that bringing back a problem starts an argument about our original judgment, they have another problem to solve before we hear about the first one. They have to work out how to tell us.

I want a person to be able to say that the plan is failing without first building a case that protects my reputation.

That requires more than inviting feedback. I need to ask questions that leave room for an answer I was not hoping to hear, and let the answer affect what we do.

Keep the judgment visible

Before acting, explain what you believe will happen and why the choice is worth making. Name the important assumptions and what remains uncertain. That gives people a way to recognize when the basis for the decision has changed.

A plan that depends on customers adopting a new process needs evidence about adoption. A plan that depends on a team having capacity needs an honest account of that capacity. The information we seek should follow the reasoning we used.

An objection still needs examination. Someone may dislike a necessary change. A difficult first week may be part of learning a better way to work. An encouraging result may be too early to trust. Listening gives us something to investigate; the leader still has to judge its significance.

We need to consider the cost of changing course as carefully as the cost of continuing. Some choices deserve more time. Others need a smaller scope, a different approach, or an end. Consider what we can still use from the completed work and what each option will require from here.

If new evidence supports continuing, explain why. If it calls for a change, name what changed and what happens next. The people depending on the plan need a usable answer, including who will act and when.

I owe them enough consistency to work, and enough honesty to know when the direction has moved.

Before the next review

Choose one active decision and ask: What have we learned that could change this judgment?

Compare the answer with the assumptions behind the plan. Decide whether to continue, adjust, or stop. Explain the reason to the people affected, and say what evidence you will examine next and when.

Give what you learn a way to change what you lead.