Hi there, this is Jon & Mark from Salt & Light.
Do you buy the house or not? Do you launch the product or not? Do you buy the company or not? Do you stay in the role or not?
Every decision eventually comes back to a binary choice.
That's not the problem.
The problem is getting there before your thinking has done its work.
Most leaders we work with arrive at black and white too quickly. Not because they're careless, but because the pressure is on and options disappear before they've noticed.
When did you last slow down long enough to ask, “What other options are available?”
That's the trap. And almost every leader we've worked with has fallen into it.
Why do we get stuck?
Facing a binary decision should awaken a red flag warning.
Two choices, one of which could be accepting the status quo, should feel like an amber traffic signal; it's time to slow down and start looking for options.
But frequently, when decisions become urgent your options quietly disappear.
Under pressure, our cognitive biases narrow our thinking.
Think about the last time you were late for a flight. You didn't consider your options. You ran.
That's narrow framing. And it follows us into our leadership meetings and boardrooms.
The red flag means it's time to widen, not decide.
Beneath the surface. We're not just narrowing our options. We're spotlighting too soon.
In the theatre, the spotlight is powerful. It focuses the audience's attention on the soloist at exactly the right moment. In decision-making the problem isn't that we spotlight. It's that we spotlight too soon.
Widen first. Spotlight when the thinking has done its work.
But how do you widen your options when the pressure is on?
Slowing down to ask questions helps…
If all the current options vanished, what would you do?
Chip and Dan Heath's book Decisive inspired this question. His insight was simply to remove the obvious choices, so our mind stops defending them. But we'd go further — remove them all.
If everything currently on the table were to vanish tomorrow, what would you do instead? Write down everything that comes up, however unlikely it seems.
And What Else?
A powerful turbo charger of a question.
Keep going. The obvious answers come first. The useful ones come after.
That discomfort you feel. That's your thinking beginning to widen.
What else could you do with the same time, money or effort?
Instead of asking what to choose, it asks what's possible. It takes the resources already committed to the decision and asks where else they could go.
Take the product launch decision. The team is debating whether to launch or not. But what if the same budget funded a smaller trial in a different market? Or a partnership that changed the economics entirely?
The binary choice disappears. New possibilities take their place.
And What Else?
The question that changes everything is usually the third or fourth one.
De Bono's Six Hats
These questions work well alone. But some decisions are too complex, too high stakes, or too political for one person to widen effectively.
That's where Six Hats becomes powerful.
Take the product launch decision. In most rooms, the optimists push for launch, the cautious ones pump the brakes, and the conversation goes in circles. Everyone is defending their position rather than exploring the decision.
Six Hats interrupts that dynamic. It gives the whole team permission to think synchronously from the same perspective at the same time — what does the data say, what are the risks, what are the possibilities, what does the customer feel?
When did your team last explore a decision together rather than argue for their own position?
Used well, Six Hats turns a room full of advocates into a room full of explorers.
Here's your challenge this week
Reading about widening options is one thing. Using it under pressure is another.
What binary decision is sitting at your desk right now that deserves more thinking?
That's where we'd like you to start.
This feels unnatural at first. Especially when the pressure is on, and everyone is waiting for an answer. But that discomfort is the point. It's the feeling of your thinking beginning to widen.
It could be a hiring decision, a strategy call, or a process you're questioning. Just make it real.
Step one: Remove all the current options. If they vanished tomorrow and you had no choice but to find another way, what would you do? Write down everything that comes up, however unlikely it seems.
And What Else?
Step two: What else could you do with the same time, money or effort? Don't anchor to the original options. Look at the resources available and ask where else they could go.
And What Else?
Step three: What intelligence would challenge your assumptions and help generate more options? Who sees this decision differently? What data haven't you looked at? What would someone from a completely different industry do?
Notice what shifts when you ask this question. The options that feel fixed rarely are.
Step four: Now spotlight — deliberately.
You've widened the stage. The full cast is visible. Now it's time to focus the light.
Which option deserves the most attention? Which aligns most closely with what matters to you and your organisation?
This is the move most decision-makers skip.
Narrow deliberately. Not because the pressure is on, but because your thinking has done its work.
Hit reply and tell us what you found. If you'd like to explore how better decision-making could work across your team — whether that's our decision-making course or a conversation about what you're facing right now — we'd love to talk.
Jon & Mark