The anxiety about bad decisions need not be any more mysterious or threatening than the effort to impose quality control on products. The key is to see how the decision should be made, and make it better.

1. Decisions
Made to work Better

2. Decisions: made to work better
• Bad decisions are plentiful enough… Scrutinized over time, the many
ways that they became bad start to recur and surface.
• We start to get a picture that addresses the question, “if you could
make it over again, what would you change?”
• By keeping tabs on those reasons or causes by source, type, and
relative co-incidence, we eventually get to “model” the composition
of a decision that, by lacking the faults, is allowed to be a good one.
• Our model shows four basic characteristics of a good decision, as
affected by four different stages in “producing” the decision.

3. “Making”
a decision
DECISION
KEYS
Scope Requirement Need Culture
domain / method validation / fit relevance / alignment acceptance / adoption
usable
important difference priority
appropriate compliance compatibility
clear quality visibility benefit
Research and assess first Needs are not requirements Solve the right problem Invest, don’t “spend”
VALUE WORTH
Note:
Bad decisions are characterized by one or more of three things: complications, unmet
expectations, and unintended consequences. Avoiding bad decisions begins during the
process of making them. Therefore, the idea is to preclude or minimize whatever encourages
those deficiencies.
Key considerations of scope, requirement, need, and culture should progressively build
the basis (and limits) for expectations regarding the decision’s probable influence and
supportability. This covers all aspects of the distinction made by a decision: how it is
made, what it is, why it matters, and who cares.
A “good” decision will have some key attributes that are evident both when the decision
is first made and after the decision starts to have an effect. It will be clear, appropriate,
important, and finally, confidently usable.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

4. Easy vs. hard
decisions
DECISION
KEYS
Scope Requirement Need Culture
domain / method validation / fit relevance / alignment acceptance / adoption
usable technique credibility effect manageability
important impact difference priority plan
appropriate history compliance compatibility responsibility
clear logic quality visibility benefit
Research and assess first Needs are not requirements Solve the right problem Invest, don’t “spend”
VALUE WORTH
Note:
The full set of pertinent factors looks like too much work to do for many instances and types
of decisions. But it is typical that many of the factors may already be known and understood,
without need for concern. What matters is to not neglect any factors; awareness of what
could have an influence helps to create sensitivity to any that may currently pose risks .
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

5. Early
right-sizing
DECISION
KEYS
Scope
domain / method
usable technique
important impact
appropriate history
clear logic
Research and assess firstNote:
The notion of minimum viable effort is significant for determining how much burden should
be taken on – such as costs, degree of difficulty, and range of impacts. Unnecessary burden
reduces the ease of adoption and sustainability, and can easily accompany the use of an
insufficiently vetted approach. Don’t base decisions on unexamined assumptions.
Habits and standards can be convenient
in important ways but they may also risk
imposing rigidity on a situation that has
important specifics currently needing
flexibility or change.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

6. Account for
Expectations
DECISION
KEYS
Scope Requirement
domain / method validation / fit
usable technique credibility
important impact difference
appropriate history compliance
clear logic quality
Research and assess first Needs are not requirements
VALUE
Note:
The feasibility of the effort comes from the likelihood that the execution can be sustained by
force of the primary actor’s will. Challenges to that capability cannot be left in place as show-
stoppers. Challenges can be latent or immediate; implicit or explicit.
“Value” is nothing less,
but nothing more, than
the significance of a
difference that is made.
The way the difference is
made must push the
significance across a
minimum threshold of
interest.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

7. Declare
focus
DECISION
KEYS
Scope Requirement Need
domain / method validation / fit relevance / alignment
usable technique credibility effect
important impact difference priority
appropriate history compliance compatibility
clear logic quality visibility
Research and assess first Needs are not requirements Solve the right problem
VALUE
Note:
The idea of “Needs” is frequently misunderstood. One meaning of “need” is Pre-requisite. A
different meaning of “need” is Intent. To resolve the confusion about needs, pre-requisites
must be distinguished and identified in scoped Requirements, while Intent must be explicitly
designated for the specific outcome that is the subject of the decision.
WORTH
“Worth” is the
degree and type
of benefit that a
given party
obtains with the
available value.
Worth is
targeted and
pursued.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

8. Commit to
choice
DECISION
KEYS
Scope Requirement Need Culture
domain / method validation / fit relevance / alignment acceptance / adoption
usable technique credibility effect manageability
important impact difference priority plan
appropriate history compliance compatibility responsibility
clear logic quality visibility benefit
Research and assess first Needs are not requirements Solve the right problem Invest, don’t “spend”
VALUE WORTH
Note:
The aftermath of a decision creates experiences in the affected environment. But the
environment already has its own dynamics that predispose a tolerance for or resistance to
the experiences provoked by the decision. To allow the best opportunity for the decision to
succeed, reactions to the decision need to be foreseen and organized to help.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

9. Decision
Support
Scope Requirement Need Culture
domain / method validation / fit relevance / alignment acceptance / adoption
PRACTICES TESTING ANALYSIS PORTFOLIOS
Research and assess first Needs are not requirements Solve the right problem Invest, don’t “spend”
VALUE WORTH
Note:
The generic model of “decisioning” is both scalable and portable across different kinds of
situations. As a way of highlighting familiar modes of decision support seen at a business
level, the below offers four examples of “typical” activities that already recruit and control
attention to the key factors in building up and sticking to a good decision.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

10. ©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research
www.archestra.com
mryder@archestra.com