4 points worth checking on decision skills examples

A decision that is stated badly cannot be made well, and most decisions are stated badly. They arrive as topics, as preferences, or as a single option wearing the clothes of a choice. The twelve decision skills examples below all arrive that way.

What to take away

The four points to check

Any stated decision can be read against four questions. Each takes seconds to ask.

1. The choice. Does the statement name at least two real options? A topic such as pricing, or a single option wearing the clothes of a choice, fails here. The repair is usually to write it as a question with options.

2. The decider. Does it name the person or role who closes it? "The team" is a preference, not a decider.

3. The date. Is there a day by which the answer exists? Without one, the item returns to next week's agenda unchanged.

4. The settlement. What would make the answer obvious, if anything would? This point is optional.

Checks one to three are mandatory. The fourth is optional, and writing the answer down in advance often shows that the evidence is obtainable, or that no evidence would change anyone's mind.

Below are twelve statements of the kind that turn up on agendas, each with what is wrong with it and the version that can actually be decided. The check each one fails is named.

The twelve decision skills examples

1. "Pricing." A topic, not a decision, so it fails check 1. Restate: whether to change the list price for one named group of customers, decided by a named person, this month.

2. "Should we hire someone?" A yes or no where the interesting question is what problem the hire solves. It fails checks 1 and 3. Restate: whether to solve the delivery backlog by hiring, by subcontracting, or by declining work, and which we prefer if all three are affordable.

3. "Do we go with option A or option B?" A binary, and the two options are usually the two that were prepared. It fails check 1. Restate by adding the third option that always exists: do neither, and decide again in a named number of weeks.

4. "We need to improve quality." A goal presented as a decision, so check 1 fails. Restate: which of three named changes to make first, given that we can only do one this quarter.

5. "Can we afford it?" A question with a hidden comparison, so check 1 fails. Restate: whether this is the best use of the money we have, compared with the two other things it could go to.

Affordability on its own has no content; opportunity cost is the idea the restated version is reaching for.

6. "Should we keep going with this project?" The framing invites a defense of what has already been spent, and check 1 fails because the live options are never named.

Restate: if we were not already doing this, would we start it today? That converts a sunk cost question into a live one.

7. "Is now a good time?" Unanswerable without a comparison, so checks 1 and 3 fail. Restate: is now better than the next named opportunity, and what changes between the two?

8. "Everyone seems happy with the new process." Not a decision at all, and the absence of complaint is being read as approval. It fails checks 1 and 2. Restate: are we adopting the new process as standard, and who is deciding?

9. "We should probably look into it." A decision to defer, dressed as progress. It fails checks 2 and 3. Restate: who is looking into what, by when, and what will they come back with?

10. "Do we build it or buy it?" A genuine binary that hides three variables: what it costs to run afterward, who maintains it, and how quickly you would need to change it. Check 1 still fails until those are named, because the answer usually turns on the third.

The build or buy choice is one of the business acumen examples where the running cost decides.

11. "The team wants to do X." A preference reported as a finding, failing checks 1 and 2. Restate: what problem does X solve, what else would solve it, and who decides between them?

12. "We have to do this for compliance." Sometimes true, and it is worth checking whether it is the requirement or one reading of the requirement. Restate: what specifically is required, by whom, and what is the minimum that satisfies it?

For anything with legal weight the answer comes from the relevant regulator or an advisor in your jurisdiction, not from an internal summary of one.

The four defects behind the twelve

Every one of the twelve is an instance of one of these four. Three of the four are failures of check 1; a preference reported as a finding also fails check 2.

That is useful, because it means you do not need to recognize the specific case: recognizing the defect is enough, and there are only four.

Writing the statement

A workable decision statement has four parts, the same four points as the checks above, and fits in a sentence.

The fourth part is optional and worth the effort. Writing down in advance what would settle it usually reveals either that the evidence is obtainable, or that no evidence would change anyone's mind, and both findings save time. The decision record fields treat this as part of the evidence section.

Where the restating goes wrong

Restating a decision can be a way of avoiding it. Three signs point to that: a statement that keeps growing, a set of options nobody would choose, and a fifth alternative added at the point where a decision was about to happen.

The protection is the date. A decision with a fixed date can be restated as often as you like until then, and the restating stops when the date arrives. The roles and process guide covers who owns that date.

Common questions

Is there a right number of options?

Three is a reasonable working number and there is nothing magic about it. Two is usually a false binary and more than four usually means the options have not been grouped into their real alternatives.

What if the real choice is embarrassing to write down?

Write it down anyway, in private if necessary. A decision that cannot be stated honestly is usually being made on grounds nobody wants to defend, and those are the ones that get reopened.

Do small decisions need any of this?

No. The value of a good statement rises with how hard the decision is to undo. For a cheap and reversible choice, decide and move on, and set a trigger to look again. The business acumen walkthrough shows where the line usually falls.

How do I tell a topic from a decision quickly?

Try to answer it with a yes or a name. If you cannot, it is a topic, and the communication skills guide has the general form of the same test: an ask that cannot be answered has not been made.