DecisionBot

Need help making a decision? DecisionBot can help you make a good choice for our company and clients.

One-way and two-way doors

When faced with a decision, ask yourself, “Is it a one-way or two-way door?”

One-way door decisions:

One-way door decisions must be made slowly and very carefully.

• One-way door decisions are irreversible decisions (or nearly so).
• If you walk through the one-way door and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t turn around and walk back through the door; you can’t get back to where you were before.
• Once you make a one-way door decision it’s final and you can’t change your mind later (or at least it would be really hard to undo it).
• Most decisions are not one-way doors (most are two-way doors).

Two-way door decisions:

Two-way door decisions should be made quickly.

• Two-way door decisions are reversible, changeable decisions.
• If you walk through the two-way door and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can turn around and walk back through the door to get back to where you were before.
• You can make a decision now, but easily change your mind later.
• Most decisions are two-way doors.

Jeff Bezos explained the difference between decisions that are one-way and two-way doors in a letter to Amazon’s shareholders:

Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible – one-way doors – and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before. We can call these Type 1 decisions. But most decisions aren’t like that – they are changeable, reversible – they’re two-way doors. If you’ve made a suboptimal Type 2 decision, you don’t have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through. Type 2 decisions can and should be made quickly by high judgment individuals or small groups.