A major decision usually contains more than an analytical comparison. There are obligations to people, uncertainties that cannot be calculated away and personal reactions the leader may find difficult to explain.
An inner boardroom can be used as a reflective exercise to give those perspectives a hearing before the actual decision is made.
Give each perspective a question
Examine the evidence: what supports the recommendation and what weakens it? Examine the consequences: who benefits, who carries the risk and which commitments must be respected? Examine your reaction: what feels attractive or uncomfortable, and why might that be?
Keep those accounts distinct long enough to see where they conflict. A strong feeling may identify a useful concern, but it does not establish the answer.
Return to the real decision process
Compare credible alternatives and obtain specialist advice where the issue requires it. Identify who has authority to decide and whose input is necessary.
Record the tradeoff in language others can understand. Private reflection should make the reasoning more accessible, rather than turn conviction into something colleagues are expected to accept without explanation.
Afterward, review the original account alongside what happened. The exercise is useful when it improves the questions asked, the evidence considered or the responsibility taken for the result.
