Guides
How leadership teams decide better, with the research behind it.
Each guide answers one question a CEO asks, names the studies by author and year, and says what to do about it on Monday. Written by Greg Dell'Era.
- 01How do you run a premortem with a leadership team?The premortem in forty minutes, the research that says it works, and the two mistakes that make it a formality.
- 02Why should people give their read on a decision before they hear the CEO's view?The order in which people speak decides what a meeting learns. The studies behind independent input, and how to run it without adding a meeting.
- 03What is a kill criterion, and how do you write one?A kill criterion is a state and a date, agreed before the bet is placed, that tells you to stop. Why it works, how to write one, and the tripwire that goes with it.
- 04How do you review a decision without judging it by its outcome?Good calls lose and bad calls win. How to look back at a decision with two questions kept apart, and why your team will get better at deciding only if you do.
- 05Which decisions deserve a process?Two questions sort every decision into the few that need the full treatment and the many that need five minutes. The evidence, and the trap on each side.
- 06Why do half of business decisions fail?Paul Nutt tracked 400 real decisions for two decades and about half failed. What the successful half did differently, and why process beats analysis six to one.
- 07What should a decision record contain?The eight parts a board, an acquirer or your successor needs to find in the record of a big decision, and why a decision log is not enough.
- 08What does deciding badly cost a company of 20 to 100 people?The dice tax in prose. Three published numbers, the arithmetic that turns them into a yearly cost for a company your size, and the caveats that keep it honest.
- 09What is the best decision-making software for a leadership team at a 20 to 100-person company?Seven options for the leadership team of a 20 to 100-person company, ranked on method, independent input, tested claims and follow-through, with each one's limits.
Bring one of these to a decision you actually have.
Bring a decision you have to make this month. We frame it with you and send your team its first questions. Or step into the demo first: three companies, real decisions, no signup.