PDM principles
Twenty-two ideas for creating better decisions.
01 / 04
Seeing the decision-maker
Before improving the decision, look at the person making it.
- 01
Every decision passes through a person. Experience, values, assumptions, emotion, mindset, risk tolerance, priorities and perception shape it long before the options are compared.
Read principle 1 → - 19
The mind runs on patterns built in the past. Many of them still serve us. Some were built for a world that no longer exists.
Read principle 19 → - 20
Every decision rests on assumptions — about people, markets, risk and what is possible. Most are never spoken aloud.
Read principle 20 →Demonstration — what the decision rests on The decision looks solid. Select an assumption to examine it.
- 21
We like to believe our important decisions are rational. Much of what drives them is emotional and intuitive.
Read principle 21 →
02 / 04
Experience & change
What we learned yesterday can help or hinder us today.
- 06
The environment in which leaders decide keeps accelerating. The mental patterns we decide with evolve far more slowly.
Read principle 6 → - 09
Experience is one of the most valuable assets a leader has. It recognizes patterns, saves time and gives confidence.
Read principle 9 →Demonstration — experience as a two-way street Experience lights the way. Patterns are recognized, the path is clear, and other routes remain open.
- 10
Confidence and judgement feel identical from the inside. They are not the same thing.
Read principle 10 → - 14
It is never exactly the same river. Change is constant.
Read principle 14 → - 15
“Been there, done it” is the sentence experience uses to stop looking.
Read principle 15 →
03 / 04
Clarity & decisiveness
Priorities, trade-offs and the courage to decide.
- 03
The search for the perfect decision is often a way of not deciding. Information is never complete and the moment does not wait.
Read principle 3 → - 04
Every real decision closes a door. Choosing one outcome means giving up another — and a decision that pretends otherwise is not yet a decision.
Read principle 4 →Demonstration — the trade-off Speed or certainty? Until one is given up, no decision has been made.
- 07
Decisiveness is not a personality trait. It is the natural result of knowing what matters most.
Read principle 7 → - 08
When a leader cannot decide, the problem is rarely the options. It is usually the priorities behind them.
Read principle 8 → - 11
How much uncertainty a person or an organization can carry decides how fast it can move — and how far.
Read principle 11 → - 12
Consequential decisions come with pressure, exposure and discomfort. That is not a malfunction of leadership; it is the job.
Read principle 12 → - 13
Postponing is also a decision — usually a poor one, made by default.
Read principle 13 →
04 / 04
Creating decisions
From choosing between options to creating better ones.
- 02
Where a person stands today, and where an organization stands today, is the accumulated result of decisions — made, avoided and postponed.
Read principle 2 → - 05
We choose from the options we can see. The frame of the mind decides which options appear at all.
Read principle 5 →Demonstration — the perimeter of your options 3 options visible. Inside a narrow frame, three choices look like all the choices there are.
- 16
Most decision-making means choosing between options someone else has framed.
Read principle 16 → - 17
Reactive decisions are made inside a situation that has already been defined — by competitors, by events, by others.
Read principle 17 → - 18
An organization cannot outperform the quality of its decisions for long.
Read principle 18 → - 22
This is the purpose of PDM.
Read principle 22 →
Bring these principlesinto your organization.
For executive teams, boards, universities, conferences and leadership events.