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Jeff Bezos: Most Decisions Are Two-Way Doors. Stop Treating Them Like One-Way Doors.

By Jeff Bezos · Leadership · 2 min read

If it's a two-way door, you walk out, spend time there, realize it's wrong, and come back in. Most decisions are like that. But companies use their heavyweight process on everything — including the lightweight ones.

Key Points

Two-way door decisions: reversible, should be made quickly by individuals or small teams deep in the org
One-way door decisions: irreversible, should be elevated to senior executives who slow them down
The mistake companies make: using the heavyweight one-way-door process on all decisions

I often found myself being the chief slowdown officer. Somebody would bring me a one-way door decision and I'd say — I can think of three more ways to analyze that.

Two-Way Doors vs. One-Way Doors

Bezos: Most decisions are two-way doors. You pick a door, walk out, spend a little time there — it turns out to be the wrong decision — you can come back in and pick another door.

Some decisions are so consequential, so important, and so hard to reverse that they are one-way door decisions. You go in that door, you're not coming back. Those decisions have to be made very deliberately, very carefully.

Most decisions are two-way doors. You can come back in. One-way doors — you're not coming back.

The Chief Slowdown Officer

Bezos: When I was CEO of Amazon, I often found myself being the chief slowdown officer. Somebody would bring me a one-way door decision and I'd say — I can think of three more ways to analyze that. Let's go do that. Because we're not going to be able to reverse this one easily. Maybe you can reverse it, but it's going to be very costly and time-consuming. We have to get this one right from the beginning.

I was the chief slowdown officer. I can think of three more ways to analyze that — let's go do that.

The One-Size-Fits-All Mistake

Bezos: What happens in companies is you end up using the heavyweight process on all decisions — including the lightweight ones, the two-way door decisions.

Two-way door decisions should mostly be made by single individuals or very small teams deep in the organization. One-way door decisions should be elevated to the senior most executives who should slow them down and make sure the right thing is being done.

Most decisions should be made quickly, in the full understanding that you can always change your mind.

Two-way doors: made by individuals deep in the org. One-way doors: elevated to senior executives.

Quick-Drying Cement

Bezos: Some technical decisions are like quick-drying cement. Once you make them, they get really hard. Choosing which propellants to use in a vehicle — selecting liquid oxygen for the booster stage and hydrogen for the upper stage — that turned out to be a very good decision. But if you changed your mind, that would be a very big setback.

That's the kind of decision you scrutinize very carefully. Other things just aren't like that.

Some technical decisions are like quick-drying cement. Once you make them, they get really hard.