One of the great things about chess is that it is so easy to record and transcribe a game for later reflection. While playing a game you just take a second to write down what piece you moved where. Because it is so simple there are records of literally millions of chess games throughout history. Chess players pore over the games of grandmasters to take their game to the next level.

So why don?t we do this for decisions? 

Decision-making is arguably the most important job of an executive but you rarely hear of people or teams sitting down and looking back at a decision and its consequences. Yet, like the chess game, the data is there. There are meeting minutes, notebooks and emails that can help you reconstruct the thought process you took. Heck, you can even use your memory. Furthermore, with the advantage of hindsight you can see how the decision turned out. 

So the tip for today is to reexamine an important decision that you made six to eighteen months ago. Gather as much of the data you can and reconstruct every move you made. Now, look at the final consequences of that decision. Were your assumptions correct? Did you make a compromise to please someone that ended up losing you money? Did the market respond well or poorly to your efforts? Challenge your thinking process and try to draw lessons for next time. And don?t forget to keep good records?future decision-makers may be need them to improve their game.