Thinking method · Common practice; see Heath & Heath, Decisive

Sort by cost of reversal

Spending your deliberation where undoing would be expensive. Whenever you notice you have been deliberating for days.

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Spending your deliberation where undoing would be expensive.

The steps

1. Ask: if this is wrong, what does it cost to undo — in money, time, and relationships?
2. Easy to undo: decide quickly and learn from it.
3. Costly to undo: take the slow pass, and use the premortem.
4. Cannot be undone: widen the options once more before committing.

When to use it

Whenever you notice you have been deliberating for days.

What it will not do

Reversal cost is not the same as importance. Small irreversible things exist.

Where it comes from: Common practice; see Heath & Heath, Decisive. Described in our own words.