Have you ever been in a meeting where people just keep putting band-aids on problems but don’t discuss how they came to that point? Let me talk about the decision chain mindset.

Understanding the Decision Chain

Picture this: You make a decision, or someone makes a decision at a high level. Let’s call this Decision A.

Based on this decision, another decision is made. Let’s name it Decision B.

And based on that, now you have to make another decision. Let’s call it Decision C.

So let’s assume it somehow fails. You will probably experiment with Decision C version 2. And maybe after that, if it fails, you will experiment with Decision C version 3.

If you keep failing, you may realize that Decision C is not the problem. Decision B is the problem.

Here you need to look at the problem from another perspective: Let’s follow the chain of these decisions and see where it leads. Decision C depends on Decision B because Decision C uses the output from Decision B. And Decision B uses the output from Decision A.

This is the point where things get complicated. Once you start questioning these decisions, and if you end up questioning one of the initial decisions, you’re probably questioning the strategy, the whole vision. And you’re probably touching the ego of someone who made this decision.

The Leadership Challenge

If you are a CEO, CTO, or project leader who is making these kinds of decisions, here is what I want to say:

Not all decisions and not all actions are fixable at bottom level.

If everything was fixable at that bottom level, what would be the point of being in a leadership position? What would be the point of being a leader? If you will not accept the responsibility for Decision A, what is the point of being in that role?

As a leader, you need to take responsibility and start accepting that your vision could be wrong. You need to accept that your initial decision was wrong. You need to accept that the decision you made caused all the other actions to be wrong.

Once you’re at that higher level, I understand it may not be easy to see that your initial decision caused everything to mess up. But you need to question yourself before blaming the last person who took action based on your decision.

You need to be able to follow this simple decision path and figure out the real problem without blaming anyone else. And take responsibility.

The decision chain mindset is about understanding cause and effect. It’s about recognizing that sometimes the solution isn’t at the execution level, but at the strategic level where the initial decisions were made.

Watch the Video

I also shared this leadership lesson in video format. You can watch it here: