Empowering Decision-Making

✂️ How To Map Unintended Consequences of UX Decisions (https://lnkd.in/dprq_aGc), with practical techniques to visualize, map and start planning for unintended consequences of design decisions — with systems thinking, impact ripples, iceberg visuals and feedback loops. By Martin Tomitsch and Justin Farrugia. 🤔 Not every design outcome is predictable and linear. ✅ Small changes can set large ripple effects in motion. ✅ Users don’t act in isolation; they react to feedback loops. ✅ Immediate metrics (e.g. clicks) often mask long-term impact. 🚫 We often focus on UX flows → but overlook causality, ripples. ✅ Systems Maps visualize relationships and consequences. ✅ We study direct and indirect effects of a suggested change. ✅ Quadrant Matrix → We map changes on Impact vs. Repetition. ✅ Impact Ripple → Direct impact, Indirect Impact, Big Picture. ✅ Iceberg Model → Events, Patterns, Structures, Mental Model. No design decision exists in isolation. Often we try to use linear user journey maps to understand how people use our product or go through specific flows. We measure the impact of A/B tests to see if we achieve a desired outcome and move the needle. We track conversion, clicks, engagement. In other words, we track metrics that often hide the complexities of user interactions and relationships between features and flows in our products. Complex systems often have conflicting loops — a feature that drives short-term retention might drive long-term churn or abandonment. Often these effects are delayed, invisible and appear to be highly unlikely at first. So before focusing on fine details of a feature, it's always a good idea to sit down and explore direct and indirect impact of the changes — for different user profiles, and the different workflows that users apply daily. A great reminder that as designers we are often so focused on fine little details too early — mostly to outperform the competition in some way. But we often forget that our product must excel in user's workflows with a few critical systems, dozens of other apps and hundreds of other tabs. --- ✤ Useful Toolkits and Books: Designing Tomorrow, by Martin Tomitsch, Steve Baty https://lnkd.in/dmXEZREr Thinking in Systems: A Primer, by Donella Meadows https://lnkd.in/dXbm5EEA Good Services: How to Design Services that Work, by Louise Downe https://lnkd.in/d5SigzvX The Great Mental Models, by Rhiannon Beaubien https://lnkd.in/dnT_GtDT Useful Books on Systems Thinking, by James Pomeroy https://lnkd.in/dH7d9exZ #ux #design

Don't Let Yesterday's Choices Haunt You. Ever made a decision you regretted? We have all been there Pouring energy, time, and sometimes even our reputation into a decision. Maybe it was; -A hire that didn’t work out -A launch that backfired -Or a partnership that felt right until it didn’t It’s easy to move on, but here is the thing most people don’t do. -Stop. -Reflect. -Rethink. If you want to make better decisions, you can’t keep rushing toward the next one without investigating what went wrong before. Here are six ways on how to apply lessons from past decisions: 1. Define the problem clearly  - Before you solve anything—step back. We often confuse what we want to happen with what’s actually broken. 2. Identify stress factors and biases -Stress narrows our thinking. It nudges us to stick with “safe bets,” repeat old patterns, or avoid risk altogether. 3. Analyze past mistakes -Identify one or two previous decisions that didn’t go well and determine the reason behind those failures. 4. Examine your assumptions -Look closely at what you believed going into those decisions. Challenge those beliefs. 5. Apply lessons to the current decisions -Look for patterns in past decisions to adjust your approach. -Make changes to your process based on insights gained. 6. Implement a new solution -Now you’re ready. Not because you have a perfect candidate or plan, but because you have a better process. So next time you’re faced with a big decision, don’t just ask “What should I do?” Ask:  -What did I miss last time?  -What am I assuming?  -What can I do differently right now? Want help applying this framework to a current challenge? Drop a comment or DM me. Let's think it through together Like this post? Follow for more leadership insights. [Source: HBR- How to Learn from Your Mistakes and Make Better Decisions, Cheryl Strauss Einhorn]

📚 Takeaways from July's Book-Of-The-Month "Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work" by Chip & Dan Heath 📚 Four Villains of Decision Making 1) Narrow framing We tend to have a Mental Spotlight so the things in the spotlight are highly visible and we miss the things outside of it. Any “whether or not to do X” or “should I do X or Y” framing should set off warning bells: you may be missing options. Widen your options. How can you expand your set of choices? Think “And” not “Or”. Consider opportunity cost: what else can I do instead of X?  Apply Vanishing Option test (what if the current option was unavailable?).  Multitrack - consider more than 1 option simultaneously. This helps you understand the Shape of a problem a lot more than Narrow Framing. Beware of “Sham options”. Find someone who’s solved your problem: look outside, look inside, ladder-up via analogies (“this problem I’m trying to solve has the shape of another problem that has been solved”). 2) Confirmation bias We develop quick beliefs about a situation then look for data to bolster it. Reality-test your assumptions. Ask disconfirming questions. How can you get outside your head and collect information you can trust? Consider the Opposite: what would have to be true for that option to be best?  Zoom out, Zoom in. Don’t trust the averages, understand the percentiles (what’s your p0 case? p100?). Find Base Rates for your decision (in the past how many people who did X succeeded?) Run small experiments to test your theory. Go out and try things! 3) Short-term emotion. Attain distance before deciding. Often an outside perspective without historical background or knowledge of politics is good. Our decisions are influenced by (a) mere exposure, things that are familiar to us, (b) loss aversion: losses are more painful than gains are pleasant. This leads to status-quo as a default decision. Hard decisions are often signs of a conflict among your Core Priorities. Identify and enshrine your Core Priorities to make it easier to resolve conflict. [ Side note: this is why at Amazon we use Tenets, as a decision framework ] 4) Overconfidence People think they know more than they do about the future. Prepare to be wrong. The future is not a “point”, a single scenario we must predict. It’s a range. Bookend it considering a range of outcomes, some positive, some negative. Lower bookend: “It’s a year from now. Our decision has failed. Why?” Upper bookend: “It’s a year from now. Our decision was a success. Were we ready to handle it and scale?” Set a Tripwire - snaps you from autopilot. Particularly important when change is very gradual. Add Deadlines or Partitions (“I’ll only spend $1MM out of my $10MM budget then reassess”). Tripwires can be triggered by patterns, not just metrics or dates. Decisions made by groups have an additional burden (careful with social cohesion) but bargaining may lead to a better, fairer decision overall. #bookofthemonth #carlosbookofthemonth

🎯 Experience is overrated. Evaluated experience isn’t. ➤ Years don’t make you better. Reflection does. 🫣 “He has 20 years of experience.” Sounds impressive, right? Well, here’s the thing—if you’ve had the same year repeated 20 times with zero introspection, what you actually have is one year of experience and nineteen years of autopilot. That’s not wisdom. That’s inertia in a suit. Now imagine this instead: A professional with five years of high-pressure, high-stakes experience, who takes time to stop, review, reflect, recalibrate—that person is dangerous in the best way. 🧠 Let’s get nerdy for a second Harvard Business School found that employees who spent 15 minutes reflecting at the end of their day performed 23% better after just 10 days compared to those who didn’t. That’s not a typo—23% better. From nothing more than pressing pause & asking: • What worked? • What didn’t? • What would I do differently? It turns out that the ROI on reflection is higher than most marketing campaigns. Add to that the work of Anders Ericsson on deliberate practice, and the picture gets even clearer: 🧪 “You don’t learn by doing. You learn by thinking about what you’re doing.” The brain literally rewires through feedback loops. Neural plasticity demands you pay attention to what happened if you want improvement. Repetition without reflection is ritual. But repetition with reflection? That’s refinement. 👔 So what’s the lesson here? When hiring, promoting, or even mentoring, stop asking: 🧓 “How many years have you been doing this?” Start asking: 🧠 “What have you learned from doing this?” Then ask: 🔁 “What did you do differently the next time?” And don’t just do this to others—do it to yourself. Ask after every investor call. Every failed hire. Every successful campaign. Every disastrous one, too. Because experience isn’t a trophy. It’s a tool. But only if you pick it up & sharpen it. 🧱 And for the skeptics in the back: 🧮 A study published in Academy of Management revealed that leaders who engage in reflective learning improve decision-making by up to 25%. 💥 Even military research backs this up. The U.S. Army’s “After Action Review” process is mandatory post-mission. Why? Because high-stakes environments don’t reward “years in uniform.” They reward adaptive learning. 📍The point most people miss Experience without evaluation is like lifting weights with no idea what muscle you're training. It might look impressive. But one day, the pressure hits. And all that muscle? Turns out, it’s not where it counts. You don’t get better just by doing it. You get better by doing it, pausing, and asking: what did I just learn? That’s how wisdom is built. Experience is the engine. But reflection? That’s the steering wheel. #Leadership #Management #SelfImprovement #ProfessionalDevelopment #ExecutiveLeadership #Experience

“How do you calculate the value someone brings to an organisation?” I had a chat over beers with a direct competitor on Saturday…to protect his anonymity let’s call him “Crossy”. Yep that’s right I talk to the competition and am even close friends with a few. They asked if I had any ways to explain value across industries for roles on paper, Here’s 4 formulas (formulae?) 😂 I got shown early in my career. We talk a lot about hiring, retention, and performance…but when it comes to assessing real impact, most companies rely on gut feel rather than hard data. As you know I’m a fan of both. So what if there was a way to quantify the value an employee delivers? Here’s a simple way to start: 1) Revenue Impact Formula → (Revenue Generated or Influenced) – (Salary + Costs) = Net Value Contribution Great for sales, business development, and roles that directly impact the bottom line. 2) Productivity ROI Formula → (Efficiency Gains x Cost Savings) – Salary = Productivity ROI Perfect for operational roles, project managers, and process improvement specialists. 3) Innovation & Problem-Solving Formula → (New Revenue from Ideas + Cost Savings from Innovation) – Investment in Role = Net Impact Think about engineers, marketers, and leaders who drive change. 4) Leadership & Culture Impact Formula Harder to measure, but look at: a) Retention Rates Do people stay longer under their leadership? b) Engagement Scores Are teams more productive and motivated? c) Performance Growth Do people perform better under their guidance? Most businesses underestimate the cost of a bad hire and the value of a great one. If you’re only looking at salary vs. output, you’re missing the bigger picture.

🟡 What if your impact isn’t easy to measure? Here’s how to talk about it anyway. “I didn’t drive revenue.” “My work wasn’t tied to metrics.” “There’s no data to show what I did.” 👀 I hear this all the time - especially from project managers, HR leaders, operations folks, support teams, and anyone in complex internal roles. However, just because your work isn’t tied to dollars doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. ✅ Here are 5 “invisible” outcomes that can be quantified - with the right framing: 1️⃣ People Impacted “I onboarded 35+ employees and created a smoother ramp-up process that reduced early attrition.” 2️⃣ Process Efficiency “I restructured internal workflows that helped cut handoff delays and made collaboration easier across 4 teams.” 3️⃣ Stress / Conflict Reduction “Helped de-escalate high-friction vendor relationships - we moved from constant issues to reliable delivery within 2 months.” 4️⃣ Morale & Engagement “Led a team through reorg uncertainty and kept morale steady - zero voluntary turnover during the toughest quarter.” 5️⃣ Strategic Enablement “Managed all backend logistics for a C-suite offsite - which led to faster decisions and immediate execution on 3 key initiatives.” 📌 These aren’t fluff - they’re performance enablers. If you helped others succeed, reduced friction, or created clarity - you added real business value. Even without a spreadsheet. 💬 What’s one “hard to measure” win you’ve had that deserves more credit? Drop it below and let’s reframe it together. 👇 #JobSearch #InterviewTips #CareerAdvice #QuantifyYourWork #Leadership #PerformanceMatters #OutcomesOverActivities

I’ve led 8+ major transformations. €7+ billion in combined revenue. Every company had values posters and vision decks. But the real metrics that matter are these: 👉 Do 80% of decisions happen behind closed doors? 👉 Does psychological safety score below 60% in employee surveys? 👉 Are <15% of people willing to challenge leadership in meetings? In one $400M transformation, we tracked the shift: when leaders started rewarding dissent instead of punishing it, psychological safety scores jumped 40%. The measurable impact? Decision speed increased 2x. Project delivery improved 35%. Voluntary turnover dropped by half. At a global packaging leader, this shift visibly drove growth momentum that was measurable in one year. At a multinational snacking company, it enabled 20% CAGR in emerging markets and delivered $50M incremental revenue. Culture isn’t a communication plan. It’s behavior you can measure and change. 💡 What’s one metric that would expose your organization’s real culture? #Culture #Leadership #Transformation #People #Strategy

Ever been in a meeting that feels like a hamster wheel of indecision? The same points circling endlessly, everyone is tired but no conclusion in sight? Decision paralysis costs organizations dearly—not just in wasted meeting time, but in missed opportunities and team burnout. After studying teams for years, I've noticed that most decision stalls happen for predictable reasons: • Unclear decision-making process (Who actually decides? By when?) • Hidden disagreements that never surface • Fear of making the wrong choice • Insufficient information • No one feeling authorized to move forward    The solution isn't mysterious, but it requires intention. Here's what you can do: First, name the moment. Simply stating, "I notice we're having trouble making a decision here" can shift the energy. This small act of leadership acknowledges the struggle and creates space to address it. Second, clarify the decision type using these levels: • Who has final authority? (One person decides after input) • Is this a group decision requiring consensus? • Does it require unanimous agreement? • Is it actually a collection of smaller decisions we're bundling together?    Third, establish decision criteria before evaluating options. Ask: "What makes a good solution in this case?" This prevents the common trap of judging ideas against unstated or contradictory standards. Fourth, set a timeline. Complex decisions deserve adequate consideration, but every decision needs a deadline. One team I worked with was stuck for weeks on a resource allocation issue. We discovered half the team thought their leader wanted full consensus while she assumed they understood she'd make the final call after hearing everyone's input. This simple misunderstanding had cost them weeks of productivity. After implementing these steps, they established a clear practice: Every decision discussion began with explicitly stating what kind of decision it was, who would make it, and by when. Within a month, their decision-making improved dramatically. More importantly, team members reported feeling both more heard and less burdened by decision fatigue. Remember: The goal isn't making perfect decisions but making timely, informed ones that everyone understands how to implement. What's your go-to approach when team decisions get stuck? Share your decision-making wisdom. P.S. If you’re a leader, I recommend checking out my free challenge: The Resilient Leader: 28 Days to Thrive in Uncertainty  https://lnkd.in/gxBnKQ8n

After 15 years leading research teams and working with dozens of companies, I’ve learned that the most valuable leadership skill isn’t just on strategy or communication; a a leader, you should have structured reflection in your toolkit. Yet most leaders treat reflection like a luxury instead of a discipline and a need. Here are three concrete practices I use to make reflection actionable: 1. The Friday 3x3 (15 minutes) Every Friday at 6pm, I write down three things: ∙ One decision I’d make differently ∙ One assumption that proved wrong ∙ One thing I learned about someone on my team This isn’t about self-criticism. It’s about pattern recognition. Within a month, you’ll spot your blind spots. 2. The Quarterly Stakeholder Flip (30 minutes) Once per quarter, I review my major decisions from three perspectives: ∙ How my team experienced it ∙ How our industry partners viewed it ∙ How it looked from our funders’ position I literally write from their viewpoint: “Amrou made X decision, and from where I sit…” This practice has saved me from costly mistakes and rebuilt relationships I didn’t know needed repair. 3. The Project Post-Mortem—Before the Project Ends (1 hour) Most teams do retrospectives after a project wraps. We do them at the 75% mark. Questions we always ask: ∙ What’s working that we should protect? ∙ What are we avoiding that we need to address? ∙ What would we do differently if we started today? The goal isn’t perfection—it’s course correction while you still have time to act. The Real Value These practices have one thing in common: they create space between action and reaction. That space is where growth happens. Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about building the systems that help you find better questions. What reflection practices have made you a better leader? Think about what you are planning to do for 2026 and how you set up your leadership skills for the next year.

I walked into a construction site last Tuesday. The Project Manager was screaming at his team. The CEO pulled me aside: "This is why we're losing money. Our people don't listen." I watched for 2 more hours. Then I told him something he didn't want to hear: "Your Project Manager isn't the problem. You are." Here's what I saw: The PM asked for a decision on steel procurement. The CEO said: "Handle it." The PM made the call. Two days later, the CEO exploded: "Why didn't you consult me first?!" This happened 6 times in one week. Different decisions. Same pattern. The team wasn't incompetent. They were paralyzed. Nobody knew when to decide vs. when to ask. So they guessed. And guessed wrong. I see this in 8 out of 10 construction companies I work with. Leaders say: "My team can't make decisions." But the real problem? You never told them which decisions are theirs to make. Here's what we fixed in 3 weeks: Week 1: Created a Decision authority matrix Level 1 decisions: Team decides, informs later (<₹50k impact) Level 2 decisions: Team proposes, leader approves (₹50k-5L) Level 3 decisions: Collaborative decision (>₹5L or strategic) Week 2: Trained every manager on the matrix Role-played scenarios Practiced saying "That's your call" Defined escalation triggers Week 3: Implemented daily 15-min stand-ups Clear decision tracking Accountability without micromanagement Issues caught early Results after 60 days: → Decision-making speed increased 3x → CEO's "firefighting time" dropped from 60 hours to 12 hours/week → Project Manager stress level went from "quitting soon" to confident leader → Team morale jumped (people love clarity) → Projects delivered 18% faster The CEO told me last month: "I thought I was being a good leader by staying involved. I was actually creating chaos." Most construction leaders avoid: Your team's indecision is your failure, not theirs. → Unclear authority = constant second-guessing → Unclear authority = slow decisions → Unclear authority = good people quitting You can't delegate responsibility without delegating authority. Define it once. Write it down. Trust your people. Or keep wondering why "nobody takes initiative." The bottleneck isn't your team. It's you. P.S. If you're the decision-maker for every ₹10k purchase in your construction company, you're not leading, you're suffocating growth. I help CEOs build decision frameworks that free up 40+ hours/month. Link in my profile.