Explaining Your Decisions
Naming the trade-off you rejected, writing a decision record and a one-pager, presenting options instead of answers, saying "I don't know yet" without losing the room, and telling reversible decisions from the ones that are not.
Every real decision rejects something. Say what you gave up, who pays for it, and why that price is worth it — before someone else discovers it for you.
A short record written after the call — what was decided, what was rejected and why, and what would reopen it — so the reasoning survives the people who made it.
The page that gets a decision made by people who will read one page: the decision you need at the top, the options and their costs next, and everything else below the fold or gone.
Bring two or three real options, each with what it costs, and say which you recommend. Never bring only the recommendation — and never bring options without one.
Say you do not know, say what you will do to find out and by when, and give the best current guess with its confidence — so the room keeps trusting you instead of trusting whoever guessed loudest.
Decide fast on what can be undone, and slowly, in writing, with the right people, on what cannot. Most of the skill is noticing which is which — and turning the second kind into the first.