The anatomy of a management decision: thesis, risk and reversibility

The final outcome does not always show whether a decision was well prepared. Accidental success can conceal a weak process, while a bad outcome may follow a well-founded decision made with limited information.

Every significant decision contains a thesis about the future, a level of acceptable risk and a varying degree of reversibility. Its quality depends on whether the assumptions, review thresholds and possible exit have been defined in advance.