Here’s a challenge to try for one day. Every time you make a decision, large or small, jot down in a notebook what the decision was and why you made it. There are a host of potential reasons: This is a decision I make every day, or this is a textbook management example with sound theory, or it felt right, or this is the way our company recommends we do it, or if I didn’t make that decision our customer would have sued us, or . . . it could be quite a long list.
Go back at the end of the day and review each decision to identify the assumptions that informed it. In the example of the one where the customer might have sued, the assumptions might have been: 1) I assumed there was no other option, 2) I assumed the decision had to be made at that time, 3) I assumed there was a genuine risk of lawsuit, 4) I assumed this solution would satisfy them based on . . . . what?