Decision Spine
This lightweight spine keeps framing, options, the call, and the review aligned across teams. Run your next decision through the spine or Browse the runbooks index. Exit metric: every logged decision names an owner + review date and ships with ≤1 unresolved comment.
- Why: Prevents re-litigation, makes tradeoffs explicit early, and leaves a durable paper trail for future teams.
- When: Use for multi‑stakeholder choices, anything with meaningful tradeoffs, or answers you expect to paste more than twice.
Four stages
- Frame - What are we deciding? What constraints matter?
- Options - What are 2-4 viable paths? What are the tradeoffs?
- Decide - Who decides? When? What's the rationale?
- Review - When do we revisit? What would trigger a change?
Why use it
- Prevents "meeting amnesia" where decisions get re-litigated
- Makes tradeoffs explicit before emotions run high
- Creates a paper trail for future teams
- Speeds up recurring decision patterns
Example template
markdown
## Decision: [Short title]
### Frame
Problem: [What needs deciding]
Constraints: [Time, budget, skills, compliance]
Stakes: [What happens if we get this wrong]
### Options
**A. [Name]**
Pros: ...
Cons: ...
Effort: [S/M/L]
**B. [Name]**
Pros: ...
Cons: ...
Effort: [S/M/L]
### Decide
Choice: [A/B]
Decider: [Role or name]
Rationale: [Why this beats alternatives]
Date: YYYY-MM-DD
### Review
Next review: [Date or trigger]
Success metric: [What good looks like]Anti-patterns
- ❌ Skipping the Frame and jumping to solutions
- ❌ Listing 10+ options (decision paralysis)
- ❌ No named decider (consensus trap)
- ❌ Never revisiting (sunk cost fallacy)
Related references
- Handshake contracts — Lock expectations once a decision is made.
- Start overview — Send new collaborators here before sharing the spine.
- Transition operating promises — Use these when a decision creates new approvals or escalations.
Integration with other practices
Combine with:
- Answer Ledger for recurring questions
- Facilitation techniques for group decisions
- Decision tripwires to enforce timely follow-up
See Anti-drift Content Governance for change types and the monthly release cadence.