Concept

Decision Question

The one decision formulated as a question, so that someone can answer it with a commitment.

A decision question is the question a group has to answer for the one decision to be made. It is put in a way that someone can answer it with a commitment, not with an analysis.

Five characteristics

A good decision question has an addressee who is in the room and responsible. It reaches beyond one’s own area; what matters is whether it changes the mechanism. It costs something: it changes priority, money, decision rights or rules. It names what is not the lever. And it has a date: by when it is answered and when the answer is reviewed.

Example

“Which new business gets its own success logic, with a budget released in tranches based on evidence instead of the annual plan?” This question can be answered with a commitment, and it costs something. “How do we become more innovative?” does neither.

Go Deeper

Related Concepts

The One Decision
The binding commitment that now opens the most room for the next decisions, made despite uncertainty, with a review date.
Candidate Question
One of the two or three decision questions left open after a diagnosis. The leadership team chooses which one becomes the one.
Decision Readiness
The point at which a decision can be soundly made — informed, aligned, accountable.
Blocking Pattern
A recurring interplay of symptom, tension axis and mechanism that blocks a decision. The book describes twelve of them.
Canvas
The working surface of the Compass: the WHY in the centre, the five other fields around it. Available as an A3 template.

Insights

Entscheidungen unter Unsicherheit: Warum klassische Logik versagt
Bessere Entscheidungen unter Unsicherheit gelingen durch klare Hypothesen, kleine Experimente und konsequentes Lernen.

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