Read the original decision context before evaluating…
When reviewing a past decision, read the original context record before evaluating the outcome, because evaluating outcome first allows hindsight bias to contaminate your assessment of whether the reasoning was sound.
When This Fires
- During scheduled decision reviews (triggered by the review date in Record five elements at the moment of every significant…)
- In post-mortems when evaluating whether the original decision was sound
- During annual reviews of significant decisions and their outcomes
- Any retrospective evaluation of past decisions
Common Failure Mode
Glancing at the outcome first: "Oh, the project succeeded — let me see what I was thinking." The glance is enough to contaminate the review. Once you know the outcome, every element of the context record is read through outcome-colored lenses. The sequence must be enforced: context first, outcome second, with no peeking.
The Protocol
When reviewing a past decision: (1) Open the decision context record (Record five elements at the moment of every significant…) WITHOUT first checking what happened. (2) Read the five elements: decision, forces, expected consequences, confidence, review date. (3) Evaluate: given this information, was the reasoning sound? Was the confidence appropriate? Were the expected consequences reasonable? (4) ONLY AFTER evaluating the reasoning: check the actual outcome. (5) Compare: did the outcome match expectations? If not, was the deviation due to flawed reasoning or unforeseen factors? This comparison, done in this order, produces genuine learning about decision quality.