# Decision Hygiene Map Use this map when: Quick coaching moves that protect ownership: - [[Humble Inquiry over Advice]] - [[Incisive Question (2 min)]] - decisions feel sticky or political - ownership is unclear - temporary choices become permanent - trade-offs stay implicit - you keep re-litigating after “agreement” ## Quick route - Frame the decision: [[Two Frames Table]] - Commit with clarity: [[Decision Snapshot]] - Publish closure: [[Decision Shareback Post (3 min)]] - Pre-agree review: [[Decision Review Cadence (15 min)]] ## Example routes - Risky call: [[Decision Hygiene for Risky Calls (30 min)]] → [[Decision Snapshot]] → [[Tripwire Template (5 min)]] - Cross-team dependency: [[Dependency Handshake (10 min)]] → [[Decision Record]] ## Start here - If a draft/proposal keeps landing as “the new rule”: [[Draft vs Decision Label (30 sec)]] (lens: [[Strong Convictions, Loosely Held]]) When you can’t decide yet, use an evidence move: - [[Evidence Move Selector (3 min)]] Calibrate reversibility and process level: - [[Two-Way Door vs One-Way Door (3 min)]] - [[Decision Risk Rating (5 min)]] If the conversation feels oddly quiet, dominant, or performative, diagnose the mechanism: - [[Decision Mechanisms Map]] If escalation is the default move — even for things the team has authority to decide: - [[Escalation vs Engagement]] — diagnose whether escalation is structurally correct or a symptom of unclear authority, low trust, or conflict avoidance (mechanism: [[Escalation as Risk Transfer - Deep Dive]]) ## Common routes ### Catch the default before it decides for you When something feels off about a decision or a reaction — use this first. - [[Default Detector (5 min)]] — identify which of the four defaults is active (ego/emotion/social/inertia) and apply the matching counter-move ### Fast and risky - [[Urgent Decision Prompts (3 min)]] - [[Decision Hygiene for Risky Calls (30 min)]] - [[Pre-Mortem and Post-Mortem (20 min)]] - [[Tripwire Template (5 min)]] ### Sticky decisions - [[Unintended Consequences Scan (10 min)]] - [[Decision Hygiene for Sticky Decisions (20 min)]] - [[Decision Snapshot]] - [[Decision Record]] ### Decisions that drift - [[Decision Review Cadence (15 min)]] - [[07_Tools/Signals and Review Points]] - [[Decision Drift Under Unclear Ownership - Deep Dive]] ### When sequencing is the real decision When the debate is less about *what* to do and more about *what to do first*. - [[Cost of Delay Read (10 min)]] — make the time cost of waiting visible; identify the delay profile (linear / fixed-date / urgent / intangible) and compare weekly delay costs to sequence by economic urgency rather than advocacy ### After the outcome is known When a significant decision has played out — good or bad — evaluate the process, not the result. - [[Decision Quality Review (15 min)]] — separate process quality from outcome quality; the Annie Duke resulting correction; extract the right lessons regardless of whether it went well ## When decisions lose their why Use this route when people know what was decided but not why. - [[When Why Becomes Who]] - [[Decision Rationale Must Travel With the Decision]] - [[Decision Rationale Check]] - [[Decision Record]] - [[Decision Shareback Post (3 min)]] ## When sensemaking needs to become commitment Use this route when the group has enough understanding to act, but the rationale still needs to be made inspectable. - [[Sensemaking vs Decision-Making (Boundary Model) - Deep Dive]] - [[Abduction Is How We Move in Uncertainty]] - [[Reasoning Mode Check]] - [[Decision Snapshot]] - [[Decision Review One-Liner Log (2 min)]] ## Closure moves - [[Decision Shareback Post (3 min)]] - [[15-minute Review]] ## Theory and academic backbone *Why decision hygiene is necessary — the cognitive science underneath.* - [[Dual-Process Theory]] — Kahneman's System 1/System 2; explains why the hygiene rules exist at the mechanistic level; the specific cognitive failure modes each rule is designed to counter - [[Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky]] — the thinker profile; heuristics and biases, prospect theory, noise in judgment - [[Gary Klein]] — the complement; how expert intuition works when it works; the premortem as a hygiene technique; when to trust fast thinking and when to verify - [[Noise in Judgment - Deep Dive]] — noise vs bias distinction; variability as a distinct failure mode; structural interventions - [[Shane Parrish]] — four defaults (ego/emotion/social/inertia) as the practitioner-facing account of what System 1 failure looks like from the inside; positioning as a structural design response; latticework as triangulation across frameworks - [[The Four Defaults]] — the full concept note; per-default activation conditions, compounding effects, and the Owlery counter-moves for each - [[Annie Duke]] — resulting: the systematic confusion of decision quality with outcome quality; decision logging as the corrective; probabilistic thinking and kill criteria ## References that support this map - [[Noise in Judgment - References]] - [[Goodhart’s Law - References]] ## References - Decision hygiene (related concepts): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision-making - Noise in judgment (overview): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_(statistics)#Noise_in_judgment ## See Also - [[Mental Models Map]] — the full catalogue of named models in Owlery; decision-relevant models in the "How should I approach this decision?" section - [[Chesterton’s Fence]] — before deciding to remove a practice, role, or constraint, understand what problem it was solving - [[Sensemaking Map]] — the upstream step; classify the situation before applying hygiene; misread situations make hygiene irrelevant - [[Knowledge Sharing Map]] — decisions need to travel; this map handles how conclusions get shared, checked, and understood by those who must act on them - [[Decision Mechanisms Map]] — the catalogue of decision methods; hygiene principles applied to specific mechanism choice - [[Working Memory - References]] — research base for cognitive load effects on decision quality; why hygiene rules exist ## When safety affects the decision A decision made in a low-safety room may look clean because disagreement was removed before it could improve the call. Use this route when decisions are made quickly, quietly, or with suspicious agreement: - [[Silence Is a System Signal]] - [[Safety Is Sensing Infrastructure]] - [[Speak-Up Constraint Scan (15 min)]] - [[Decision Rationale Must Travel With the Decision]] - [[Decision Rationale Check]] Ask: was the system capable of receiving a useful objection before the decision hardened? ## Decisions as travelling knowledge Decision hygiene depends on whether rationale travels with the decision. Link decision work to knowledge travel when people know what was decided but not why. - [[Decision Rationale Must Travel With the Decision]] - [[Decision as a Knowledge Artifact - Deep Dive]] - [[Teach-Back Turns Information Into Shared Understanding]] - [[Teach-Back Loop (10 min)]] - [[Knowledge Travel Map]] ## Distributed judgement route Use this route when the decision has been made, but people still cannot act with enough shared judgement. - Start with [[Decision Making as Distributed Judgement Map]] - Check rationale travel with [[Decision Rationale Check]] - Package context with [[Decision Context Pack (10 min)]] - Check enactment with [[Distributed Judgement Check (12 min)]] - Add review rhythm with [[Decision Expiry and Revisit Rhythm (5 min)]] This route treats decision hygiene as a coordination practice, not only a meeting practice.