Decision-Making Process Improvement

5 Decision-Making Frameworks That Transformed How I Lead RiseUpp.com Have you ever faced a crucial business decision that kept you up at night? Last week, while deciding on a major partnership, I reflected on how my decision-making process has evolved since founding RiseUpp. Here are the frameworks that guide me: The 10/10/10 Rule What will the impact be in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years? This helped me prioritize long-term partnerships over quick wins. The Regret Minimization Framework Instead of asking "What's the best choice?", I ask "Which choice will I regret the least?" This led us to invest heavily in user experience over rapid expansion. The Second-Order Thinking Looking beyond immediate consequences. When we made our course comparison tool free, we lost short-term revenue but gained massive user trust and market leadership. The Eisenhower Matrix Urgent vs Important. This saved me from countless "urgent" meetings that weren't moving us toward our vision of democratizing education. The Jeff Bezos "70% Rule" If you have 70% of the information needed, make the decision. Waiting for 100% certainty cost us early opportunities. Now we move faster. The most valuable lesson? These frameworks aren't rigid rules – they're tools. Sometimes, you need to combine them or trust your instinct. What decision-making frameworks do you rely on? Share your experiences below. #Leadership #DecisionMaking #CEOLife #StartupGrowth #BusinessStrategy #EdTech #RiseUpp #OnlineEducation #CareerGrowth #ExecutiveDecisions #StrategicThinking #BusinessLeadership #StartupLife #EntrepreneurMindset #ProfessionalDevelopment

The biggest mistake in decision-making has nothing to do with the solution. It’s focusing on the answer before you've understood the real question. This creates confusion, wastes resources, and burns out your team. The fastest way to a great decision isn't speed, it's clarity. 6 steps to make better decisions every time: 1️⃣ Define the actual problem. ↳ Don't just treat the symptom. Ask "Why?" five times to find the root cause. A solution to the wrong problem is worthless. 2️⃣ Involve the right people. ↳ Get input from those who will do the work. But keep the decision-making circle small. More voices don't mean a better choice, they just mean more noise. 3️⃣ List your constraints. ↳ What are the absolute limits on time, budget, and resources? Being honest about your boundaries forces creative and realistic solutions. 4️⃣ Generate multiple options. ↳ Never fall in love with your first idea. Force yourself to come up with at least three viable paths. This simple step prevents confirmation bias. 5️⃣ Stress-test your top choice. ↳ Before you commit, ask the most important question: "If this fails, why did it fail?" Identify the weaknesses in your plan before the world does it for you. 6️⃣ Decide, commit, and communicate. ↳ A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan next month. Make the call, empower your team to act, and clearly explain the "why" behind your decision. Stop looking for the right answer. Start by finding the right question. What's one rule you follow for making better, faster decisions?

One of the ways that Jeff and the S-Team instilled operational excellence at Amazon was through disciplined, data-based decision-making. Most CXOs don't have a method to ensure their organizations make high-quality decisions. Below is my take on a set of principles and processes to operationalize good decision-making: 1. Timely - "Last Responsible Moment" (LRM): The concept of LRM emphasizes understanding the latest date by which each decision must be made to keep a project on track.  Early decisions can lead to mistakes, and late decisions make it harder to meet operating goals.  Forcing the organization to determine the last responsible moment improves its understanding of the decision, and it also spreads out the time between decisions. 2. Differentiated - One-Way vs. Two-Way Doors: The idea is simple: a two-way door decision is one where, if you walk through the door and don’t like what you see, you simply turn around and go back through.  Two-way door decisions are reversible and can be made quickly without extensive analysis, enabling greater operational agility.  One-way door decisions, on the other hand, are either irreversible or very expensive to reverse.  These should be made slowly and with great care. 3. Informed Truth Seeking: Decisions should be made after a period of dedicated data gathering, analysis, and truth seeking supported by a clear and concise business narrative. High-quality analysis includes objectively exploring multiple courses of action and recommendations based on costs and benefits. 4. Debate: In the words of Peter Drucker, a decision is a judgement, not a choice between right and wrong.  To understand an issue, a robust debate between high-judgement leaders offering different viewpoints is required.  Corporate cultures that encourage open, data-based debate excel at this. 5. Consistent Forum: Decisions of consequence (one-way doors) should be made in the consistent forum. At Amazon, this meant reading a narrative at a meeting with Jeff and the S-team. The decision(s) would be made in the meeting with all of the relevant people present. The decision wouldn't be reversed by a subsequent conversation with the CEO. 6. Detailed:  The details of any decision matter a lot. The documentation used to make a decision should include all relevant implications and details: costs, personnel, timeline, and detailed features. This enables alignment with the CEO and allows teams to move fast once a decision has been made. 7. Experienced Leaders:  The only way to get good at decisions is to make lots of them and to be held responsible for the consequences.  We all learn more from mistakes than from success.  This requires an organizational structure and culture of ownership (not an ambiguous matrix), as well as a willingness to fail. Leaders – what are your thoughts on my list? What would you edit, add, or subtract??

Good leaders make decisions. Great leaders refine HOW they make them. I’ve guided new leaders through the challenges of balancing speed, confidence, and precision. Decision-making is a skill that grows stronger with practice and intentionality. Here’s how to refine it: 1. Understand the Real Timeline ↳ Most decisions aren’t true emergencies—pause. ↳ Discern between urgent and important priorities. 2. Balance Overthinking and Underthinking ↳ Use timeboxing to avoid analysis paralysis. ↳ Combine intuition with fact-based validation. 3. Clarify the Desired Outcome ↳ Define what success looks like before deciding. ↳ Ensure every decision aligns with broader goals. 4. Involve the Right People ↳ Seek input from stakeholders to refine options. ↳ Avoid silos; collaboration leads to better solutions. 5. Consider the Impact on Teams and Culture ↳ Weigh how choices influence morale and trust. ↳ Take responsibility for outcomes, win or lose. 6. Learn from Every Decision ↳ Keep a decision journal to track results and lessons. ↳ Identify patterns to improve future judgment. 7. Build a Reliable Decision-Making Toolkit ↳ Use frameworks like pros/cons lists or matrices. ↳ Adapt quickly as new information becomes available. Decision-making is part art, part science, and wholly essential to leadership. Approach it with clarity, confidence, and accountability to drive success and build trust. #BuildingLeaders #Manufacturing 👉 What’s your top tip for new leaders? Tell me below! 

Let’s stop romanticizing input. Start professionalizing decisions. Because a team that hears everyone but can’t converge isn’t inclusive but indecisive. I see it all the time: 1. Teams bring bold, diverse perspectives to the table. 2. They brainstorm, debate, expand thinking. 3. But when it's time to choose - silence, hesitation, power grabs, or rushed consensus. The biggest problem I see in companies is that they treat decision-making as a moment, not a discipline. That’s where I focus in my work with leadership teams: Not just on hearing more voices, but on building the muscle of inclusive decision-making as a repeatable process that turns diversity into direction. Here’s how we do it: 1️⃣ Make decision rights explicit.  Who decides? Who contributes? Who needs to know? 2️⃣ Separate idea generation from commitment. Diverge first. Converge second. 3️⃣ Create a decision rhythm. Clear steps, check-ins, and closure points. 4️⃣ Build psychological safety to challenge, not just speak. No point in diverse ideas if no one can question the status quo. Because diverse ideas only create value when a team knows how to decide together. P.S.: Does your team know how to end a conversation with a decision and not just more ideas? —————————— 👋 Hi, I’m Susanna. I help organizations build high-performing, inclusive cultures by turning psychological safety and diversity into business strategy. Let’s work on how your teams & leaders think, feel, and decide - together.

Want to make better decisions? It’s simpler than you think… Stop making so many. The average adult makes 30,000+ decisions a day. From the moment you wake up it never ends. What time to get up. What to eat. What to make the kids for breakfast. Whether to train or rest. Which email to answer first. When to check messages. What to push. What can wait. What can’t. None of these feel heavy. But together? They’re exhausting. As responsibility grows — team, family, business, pressure — decisions don’t just increase. They compound. That’s where decision fatigue sets in. Not as burnout. As friction. From a brain standpoint, this is straightforward. Decision-making relies on the prefrontal cortex, the same system responsible for focus, impulse control, and judgment. As it gets taxed, decision quality drops. You don’t feel “tired.” You feel: Shorter patience. Sloppier output. Busy, but less effective. So the solution is fewer decisions. If you want high decision quality under pressure, you have to offload the easy ones. Not with hacks. With pre-decisions. (Call them rules, defaults, standards — the label doesn’t matter.) The process is simple: Notice the decisions you make over and over. Decide once, on your best day, and turn it into a default. Stick to it long enough that it stops costing attention. This isn’t rigidity. It’s respect for cognitive bandwidth. Elite performers don’t win by making better decisions all day. They win by protecting the system that makes the important ones. Fewer choices. Cleaner thinking. Reliable execution when it counts. That’s how decision quality actually scales.

If it’s always a debate, it’s not a decision process. If your team debates endlessly, you don’t have collaboration — you have a loop. It happens all the time: Smart people. Good intentions. And a decision that never gets made. Not because they disagree — but because no one defined how the decision will be made. When everything requires consensus, nothing moves. When ownership is fuzzy, meetings become theater. Without a clear process, teams mistake discussion for progress. --- Step 1: See how decisions actually happen ↳ Who holds the pen? Who influences it? ↳What’s the unspoken rule — consensus, hierarchy, or whoever speaks last? ↳ Until you see the invisible process, you can’t improve it. --- Step 2: Create clarity before deciding Ask: ↳ What matters most — speed, accuracy, risk, or optics? ↳Who decides vs. who advises? ↳ What’s “good enough” to move forward? Before making any major call, pause to ask three key questions 👇 1️⃣ Do we have the information needed to decide confidently? If not, define what’s missing — and by when it will be available. A delayed decision is sometimes better than an uninformed one. 2️⃣ What are the tradeoffs between Option 1 and Option 2? Every decision has tension. For example: choosing a newer architecture might deliver faster results, but carries the risk of using a less mature product. Clarify what’s gained, what’s lost, and what sits in between. 3️⃣ What are the non-negotiables? Define absolute must-haves and showstoppers. Then weigh the remaining differences by impact, not emotion. Remember: no decision is perfect. The right decision aligns with your organization’s priorities and moves you closer to the desired outcome. Every choice has limits. The key is knowing what you can — and can’t — live without. --- Step 3: Make it visible and reinforce it ↳ Once alignment is clear, make the call — and make it visible. ↳ Clearly communicate who made the decision and who approved it. ↳ Then make sure the reasoning and next steps are documented — because someone willask about it later. --- Meetings don’t move projects. Decisions do. Clarity isn’t about control. It’s about creating shared confidence to move forward. If your team debates endlessly, stop looping. Define the decision, make the call, and act. --- ♻️ Share this post with your network — clarity moves faster than consensus. ➕ Follow Janet Kim for more stories on leadership and career transformation. ~~~~~~ I leverage 19 years in Stanford tech to help emerging leaders think strategically, build influence, and execute with confidence, so you’re seen, heard and valued.

Nearly 60% of CEOs evaluate their strategic decision capability based on outcomes rather than the quality of their decision-making process (PwC). It’s easy to see why. Outcomes are tangible, measurable, and at the end of the day, they’re the bottom line. Yet, decades of research show that using smart decision processes thoroughly beats congratulating yourself on outcomes. This is because outcomes are influenced by factors outside your decision scope—like market shifts, new regulations, or good old-fashioned luck. You could have a positive result because the market suddenly changed in your favor, or because a competitor stumbled. Or, a great decision could lead to an unfavorable outcome simply because of unexpected variables—like an economic downturn or an unforeseen risk. By the way, some of the most brilliant, value-creating moves I’ve seen came after a bad misstep or unexpected event prompted exec teams with stellar decision practices to re-evaluate and take advantage of the new conditions. (Insert your favorite example from early COVID here!)  When you evaluate your strategic decisions through the lens of the quality of your decision-making process it can reveal key insights: ✨ Clarity of information: Did you gather the right data? Were there gaps in your information? ✨ Diverse perspectives: Did you get a variety of viewpoints? Did you challenge assumptions? ✨ Navigating uncertainty: What risks were identified? Did you fully explore what you were unclear about? ✨ Alignment with values and mission: Did your decisions consistently reinforce the org’s larger vision? Were the decisions aligned with your org’s core values? ✨ Flexibility and agility: Did you stay flexible to new information or changing circumstances? ✨ Room for improvement: What worked well? What changes might be made next time? Focusing on the quality of your decision-making process reveals whether your decisions are based on thorough analysis, aligned with your strategic goals, and designed to be repeatable for long-term success. What could change for your team if you started measuring success by increasing the quality of your decisions instead of waiting for the results?

Decide better faster - How to understand the nature of the decision and choose the right frame. Decision-making is key to any leadership role and a fulfilling life. I observe too many people, including myself, who struggle with decision-making. They push off decisions, are very slow decision makers, or have entire decision-making inertia. The emotional, financial, and opportunity costs of a lack of decision-making are massive. It's like stones that fill your backpack. Try to climb a mountain with 20kg of stones in your backpack. This is how many of us run around with unmade decisions. “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide." Napoleon Bonaparte Key to improve your decision making is understanding the nature of the decision and choosing the right frame. Make better decisions faster.   WHY it matters Agency Deciding quickly restores a sense of control, shifting focus from constraints to action (Bandura, 1997). Momentum Fast decisions reduce friction and create forward motion (Milkman et al., 2014). Performance Organizations and leaders who decide faster in uncertainty outperform peers (Eisenhardt, 1989).   WHAT actions to take 1. One-Way vs Two-Way Door (Jeff Bezos) Decide fast when reversible, slow when irreversible. Best for: leadership, strategy, hiring, product decisions Match speed to reversibility 2. Expected Value Thinking (Annie Duke) Estimate: upside × probability – downside × probability. Best for: investments, bets, asymmetric opportunities Optimize for asymmetric upside 3. Opportunity Cost (Naval Ravikant) Every yes is a no to something else. Not deciding is still a decision—with a cost. Best for: time, priorities, career and portfolio choices Every yes has a price 4. Second-Order Effects (Ray Dalio) Look beyond immediate outcomes. Second- and third-order effects determine long-term success. Best for: strategy, systems, organizational decisions Think in consequences, not moments 5. Principles (James Clear) When outcomes are uncertain, anchor to values and identity. Best for: life-defining, ethical, cultural decisions Optimize for integrity over certainty     FINAL thought “When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.” William James Design a life that works for you 🔥 ➕ Follow me for more life design advice ✍️ Subscribe to my newsletter on life design https://lnkd.in/ewzbNmS9