Reversible and Irreversible Decisions.

Not all decisions deserve the same care. Jeff Bezos describes this as one-way doors and two-way doors. A two-way door is a decision you can walk back through if you are wrong. A one-way door is a decision you cannot undo.

Most decisions are two-way doors. They should be made quickly, by the people closest to the work, and corrected as needed. A few decisions are one-way doors. Those deserve slow, careful thought and the full attention of the most experienced people in the room.

The failure I see most often

Founders treat every decision as a one-way door. They agonize over a pricing test or a hiring sequence as if it were permanent. Meanwhile the genuinely irreversible decisions get made in a hurry, because everyone is exhausted from overthinking the small ones. Choosing a co-founder. Taking a particular investor’s money. Selling the company.

In the air the difference was obvious. Changing a heading was a two-way door. Committing to certain actions was not. We spent our deliberation where it mattered and moved fast everywhere else.

Why companies slow down

Bezos made the point in his 2015 letter to shareholders, where he called them Type 1 and Type 2 decisions. His warning was about growth. As a company gets bigger, the heavy process built for irreversible choices spreads to everything. The cost is slowness, risk aversion and too few experiments. A startup is not immune. Fear can do what bureaucracy does.

I have walked through a one-way door myself. In 2001 I handed back the capital we had raised for Internet Venture Works. Once the money went back, there was no second chance to use it. I have thought about that decision many times since. A pricing test does not deserve that.

Sort your doors

1. List every open decisionWrite down every decision you are currently putting off.
2. Label each doorNext to each, write one-way or two-way. You will likely find the list is mostly two-way doors.
3. Clear the two-way doors this weekDecide with the information you have, close to the work. Correct as needed.
4. Schedule the one-way doorsGive each one real thinking time and the attention of your most experienced people.