Answer first
How do you structure a major business decision?
By Stan Tscherenkow. Updated August 31, 2026.
Write the exact choice, name one decision owner, list the real options including doing nothing, set the criteria and evidence threshold, define authority and adviser roles, record reversibility and a stop condition, set the deadline and default, then assign the first action and review date. Decision architecture is the structure that makes those elements explicit.
A seven-step process can organize activity and still leave the business stuck. The usual missing pieces are not more steps. They are an unowned call, an unstated default, criteria that change during the discussion, or no agreement about which fact would change the answer.
The artifact should fit on one page. It does not make the decision for the owner. It makes the choice, authority, evidence, consequence, and follow-through checkable by everyone who has to act.
Match the process to the consequence
- Reversible test: set a small exposure, one owner, a short review date, and a stop condition. Speed can matter more than perfect certainty.
- Material commitment: document options, criteria, evidence, cash and team exposure, authority, dependencies, and the cost of delay before committing.
- Specialist-duty decision: when law, tax, finance, employment, safety, compliance, or another professional duty is involved, name the qualified reviewer and what they must approve. A decision template does not replace that review.
Diagnose the block
Four disagreements look like one stuck decision.
Do not order more research until you know which disagreement is open. Each one closes differently.
Fact dispute
People disagree about what is true. Name the source, test, or observation that can settle it.
Criteria dispute
People agree on the facts but value different outcomes. Rank and weight the criteria before scoring options.
Authority dispute
The group does not know who can decide, advise, approve, or veto. Resolve decision rights before another meeting.
Consequence conflict
The options carry different ethical, personal, customer, team, or professional consequences. State what cannot be traded away.
Operator rule More data can close a fact dispute. It cannot by itself settle a values conflict, fix an authority gap, or choose the criteria.
The one-page decision record
Twelve fields make the decision executable.
Put the decision on one page. If the team cannot fill a field, that blank is part of the diagnosis.
1. Decision sentence
Write the choice as one sentence that can end with a clear option, not a topic such as “growth” or “staffing.”
2. Decision owner
Name one person who closes the call. List advisers separately so consultation does not become shared ambiguity.
3. Real options
List viable paths, including doing nothing, delaying, or running a bounded test when those are genuine choices.
4. Criteria and weights
Name what the choice must optimize or protect. Weight criteria before scoring so the winner is not reverse-engineered.
5. Evidence threshold
Name the fact, range, or test result that would change the answer. “More data” is not a threshold.
6. Authority boundary
State what the owner can approve, spend, change, and promise, plus any specialist or board approval still required.
7. Reversibility
Name what can be unwound, the earliest safe exit, and which commitments become irreversible.
8. Stop condition
Set the signal that pauses or reverses execution before sunk-cost thinking takes over.
9. Deadline and default
Set the decision date and what happens if nobody acts. The default is an option with consequences.
10. First action
Name the person, action, and date that turn the decision into work. Agreement without an action owner is not execution.
11. Review date
State when the outcome will be checked and which result would justify keeping, changing, or ending the decision.
12. Cost of waiting
Record the cash, customer, team, operational, or option cost created while the decision remains open.
Completion test Another responsible person can state the choice, owner, options, deciding criteria, evidence threshold, authority, reversibility, stop condition, deadline, default, first action, review date, and cost of waiting without asking what the document means.
Illustrative filled record: a second-location lease
This fictional example shows the twelve fields. The amounts and dates are assumptions for the exercise.
1. Decision: sign this lease, negotiate a smaller site, or remain at one location. 2. Owner: CEO. 3. Options: the proposed site, a smaller site, or no expansion this year.
4. Criteria: preserve cash (50%), meet demonstrated customer demand (30%), and keep the manager's workload workable (20%). Compare only options that pass the cash requirement. 5. Evidence threshold: a reviewed cash forecast must cover six months of combined fixed costs without new debt, and paid orders must support the added capacity.
6. Authority: CEO may approve rent up to $4,000/month and build-out up to $30,000; anything above either cap needs the owners' written approval. Qualified counsel reviews the lease terms before signature. 7. Reversibility: before signature, the company can withdraw; after signature, exit depends on the lease and may remain costly.
8. Stop condition: do not sign if the forecast fails the cash requirement, either cost cap is exceeded without approval, or counsel identifies an unresolved material obligation. 9. Deadline/default: decide by September 15; without approval, let the option expire.
10. First action: finance lead completes the combined cash forecast by September 5. 11. Review: owners review the evidence on September 10; if the lease is signed, compare actual cash and demand with the forecast on October 31. A shortfall triggers a spending review, not an assumed right to cancel the lease. 12. Cost of waiting: $500/week in temporary storage; the site option expires September 15. Waiting also preserves the cash that expansion would consume.
Reopen test Reopen the call only when a named assumption fails, the evidence crosses the recorded threshold, the authority or constraint changes, or the review shows the stop condition. Discomfort alone is not a new decision.
Source notes: research on decision rights and accountability supports naming the accountable owner; a management decision article supports testing responsibility, practicality, and what the owner can live with. The field structure and completion tests above are Stan Tscherenkow's operating method.
Use decision architecture when the recurring problem is unclear authority, missing evidence, or choices that never close.
Use the answer to identify the relevant facts. Use consultation or a larger collaboration only when a real business decision is already live.
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