The reflex
An initiative goes wrong. The result becomes the only argument for judging the decision, and nobody looks at what was known at the start.
The builder’s reflex
Examine the original reasoning, then the result. A bad result does not prove a bad decision; it does not prove it was a good one either.
Why
A good decision can lose. A bad one can win. If you judge on results alone, you teach your team to count on luck.
A team picks a carrier for its advertised delivery times and its price. A strike stops its trucks for a week. The review can confirm the choice, and show that a fallback was needed. It can also show that a piece of information was overlooked. The conclusion depends on the facts.
To judge a decision, look at what was known when it was made: the options, the information, the known risks. Then look at the result. Those are two different examinations.
That takes a record. Three lines written before deciding are enough: the goal, the options, what you do not know. Without them, memory rewrites everything afterwards.
Try this
Before an important decision, write those three lines.
At the review, ask:
“What did we know, and what could we reasonably have checked?”
“What did we learn, and what does that change for the next decision?”
Choose one improvement, or explain why the reasoning still holds.
To discuss
In a recent decision, what does the result teach us without rewriting what we knew at the start?