Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting done what matters most.

When making decisions, people strive to get them right. Never have I met a competent leader or employee who purposely attempted to make the wrong choice. We each do our best when we have to make up our minds. 

Thinking and deciding are straight forward unless we complicate them with over-analysis or under-utilization of our cognitive abilities. Radical Accountability for decisions provides us with a four-step approach for eliminating these human tendencies:

Stop…any task or activity that has nothing to do with the decision at hand. Distracted decision making is just as dangerous as distracted driving. 

Breathe…and feed the brain with oxygen. Just a few breaths enriches the intellect, slows down any nervous energy, reduces emotional reactions, and increases presence and use of all of your faculties. 

Think…about the desired outcome. When dealing with an area outside your expertise, think about whose input on that outcome would help, and ask for their experience and wisdom. Using others’ insights and your own intellect, make a choice that is the most efficient and effective way to create the desired outcome. 

Act…immediately once a decision has been made. 

Even if you later learn that a different decision is a better one, you can never fault yourself when you make decisions with Radical Accountability. You always have the option and ability to take any decision and adjust it to make it right. 

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Adopt and use Stop, Breathe, Think, and Act as your method for all decisions from now on. 

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