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Free minibook · PDF, 22 pages
Sort Every Decision, Set the Right Bar and Clear the Queue Without Betting the Company
The price increase had been on the agenda for seven weeks. Nobody said no. Nobody said yes either, and every week the old price shipped another truckload of margin out the door. The cure isn't to decide everything fast. It's to know which decisions deserve months, hold them to a high bar and stop holding everything else to the same one.
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By Todd Hagopian, who has led business transformations at Berkshire Hathaway, Illinois Tool Works and Whirlpool.
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Who it's for
Leaders of a business, division or function where decisions take longer than they should, waiting for one more analysis, one more meeting or one more sign-off. Sort each decision by two questions: can it be undone, and how much does it matter? Set the confidence bar that fits, check you've sorted it honestly, test whether you've reached the bar, then give it one owner and one date.
Not for you if life-safety, product-safety or regulatory decisions where the law or your policy sets the standard.
What you'll learn
- Late Is a Decision Too
- Sort Before You Study
- Check the Door
- Three Yeses
- One Owner, One Date
Plus a final action plan and a worksheet you can use the same week.
Key takeaways
- Late is a decision too. Being wrong has an owner and a visible cost; being late has neither, so it gets ignored.
- Four kinds of decision, four bars: reversible routine decisions at about 50 to 60 percent, reversible critical and one-way contained decisions at about 70 percent, and one-way critical decisions at about 85 to 90 percent with pilots and an outside view.
- Check the door: three reversibility questions keep you from calling a one-way decision reversible.
- The Three Yeses make 70 percent checkable instead of a feeling.
- One owner, one date. Consultation isn't approval.
From the book
The price increase had been on the agenda for seven weeks.
Every week someone had a good reason to wait. Sales wanted one more conversation with the buyer. Finance wanted the model rerun with new freight rates. Someone suggested a survey. Nobody said no. Nobody said yes either, and every week the old price shipped another truckload of margin out the door.
That's what slow looks like from the inside. It doesn't feel like a failure. It feels like diligence. Nobody chose to take seven weeks. It happened one sensible request at a time.
The cure isn't to decide everything fast. Some decisions deserve months. The cure is to know which decisions those are, hold them to a high bar and stop holding everything else to the same one.
That's what the 70-Percent Rule does, once you use it properly. This book shows you how.
Todd Hagopian, The 70-Percent Rule, from the prologue "The Meeting About the Meeting"
Frequently asked questions
Isn't it safer to take the time and get it right?
Only if waiting is free, and it isn't. Every week a decision sits open, the option can close, the old choice keeps running by default and people stay on hold. Being wrong has an owner and a cost everyone sees. Being late has neither, so it gets ignored.
How much confidence is enough to decide?
It depends on two questions: can it be undone, and how much does it matter? Reversible, routine decisions need about 50 to 60 percent. Reversible, critical decisions need about 70 percent. One-way but contained decisions need about 70 percent with an exit clause. One-way, critical decisions need about 85 to 90 percent, with pilots and an outside view.
How do I make faster decisions stick?
Put three things on every decision before anyone studies it: its kind, its owner and its decision date. One person both does the deciding and answers for it. Others are consulted, with a deadline. Consultation isn't approval.
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Read moreRelated reading on the blog
- Reversible vs. Irreversible Decisions
- Who Should Make This Decision?
- The Real Cost of Not Making a Decision
Go further
Stagnation Assassin: The Anti-Consultant Manifesto is about the bigger fight: the conditions that make companies decay from the inside, the team you need to fight them and the tools to keep a recovered business moving. It's available now. Todd's next book, 10-Minute Transformation, is out February 23, 2027.
The full library
Two ways to get it. Preorder now and it ships on release. Or buy on launch day, February 23, 2027, and get three free audiobooks (10-Minute Transformation, Stagnation Assassin and The Unfair Advantage) plus the full minibook library, on the honor system. Preorders don't include the launch-day bonuses.
About the author
Todd Hagopian, The Stagnation Assassin, is VP of Product Strategy and Marketing. He has led business transformations at Berkshire Hathaway, Illinois Tool Works, and Whirlpool Corporation, with $3B+ shareholder value across five turnarounds. He speaks to leadership teams on business transformation, turnarounds, and breaking stagnation.