70% Rule - Most Decisions Are Reversible. But Some Aren’t.

“Many decisions are reversible, two-way doors. Those decisions can use a light-weight process. Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70 percent of the information you wish you had.

Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible-one-way doors-and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before.

But most decisions aren’t like that – they are changeable, reversible-they’re two-way doors. If you’ve made a suboptimal two-way door decision, you don’t have to live with that for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through”. - Jeff Bezos

Comment: Generally, CEO’s and decision makers learn to pivot quickly, with changeable and reversible two way doors, regarding decisions that do not work out from my experience as a CEO and Business Consultant. - Dr Alan Grossnickle

Dr David Shore, Strategies for Leading Successful Change Initiatives: Mastery Session, Professional & Executive Education, Harvard Division of Continuing Education, July 29-3, 2024.