Harvard Business Essentials, Decision Making

Be Prepared for the Worst

The savvy decision maker recognizes uncertainty and takes steps to

reduce it to the extent that is possible and practical. But this decision

maker does one more thing: he prepares for the worst. Preparing for

a bad outcome begins with making a list of the specific things that

could go wrong in a decision. Each item on the list should then pro-

voke this question: “How will we respond if this happens?” The re-

sponse should take the form of a contingency plan that aims to limit

the damage and, hopefully, help the company recover from the bad

outcome.

The Harvard Business Essentials series Web site has a handy

checklist that you ...