The Art of Redecision:
Are You Running on Expired Decisions?
We often treat decisions as permanent. We don’t mean to, but over time, they turn into habits. Autopilot. We make a call on a strategy, a hire, a process, and then we stick with it, sometimes long past its usefulness.
But here’s the little gut-punch moment: not changing something is still a decision. And when we don’t revisit our choices, we risk leading our teams and our lives with outdated decisions.
With the New Year approaching, this is a powerful moment to pause. Not just to set new goals, but to look back at the decisions we’ve been living with and ask: Are these still the right ones? This is about NOT waiting until things are broken and you and others are burned out, misaligned, or unhappy. It’s about prevention. And prevention is always easier than needing a cure.
This has been top of mind for me as we just wrapped up a Motives Leadership Accelerator, and one small but powerful pattern we noticed on their leadership team was a strong history bias, defaulting to “that’s just the way it is” thinking. A mini-motive action we identified that’s pivotal for them is eliminating the phrase “this is how we’ve always done it” from the team’s vocabulary. It’s a subtle shift, but a powerful one because that mindset quietly keeps teams anchored to familiar patterns instead of moving toward what’s actually needed now.
That’s where the idea of re-decision comes in.
👉 Redecision is the habit of asking:
“If I were making this decision today, with what I know now, would I make the same choice?”
It’s asking yourself:
Would I structure roles on my team the same way?
Would I still be pouring this much energy into this goal?
Would I still say yes to these types of requests or set clearer boundaries?
Would I still align myself with the same people, partnerships, or dynamics?
✨ Try this with your team
Start by noticing where things don’t feel good, areas of stress, frustration, or friction. Those signals often point to decisions that may be overdue for a redecision. Then think about:
- Redecide your meeting norms. If you were starting fresh, would you design them the same way?
- Redecide your priorities. With today’s goals and realities, do they still align?
- Redecide success. How are you defining “success” right now, and is that definition still serving you?
- Redecide time. Would we spend our time differently if we could decide from scratch how we spend it?
Life and leadership aren’t about getting every decision right the first time or expecting that things won’t change. They’re about noticing when a decision is past its expiration date. And to sometimes even admit if a past decision wasn’t the right one to begin with.
Strong leaders and teams re-decide.
They pay attention when circumstances change, when people grow, and when priorities shift. They don’t cling to past choices out of habit or sunk cost; they have the courage and self-awareness to pivot.
This week’s Motive Minute Challenge:
What’s one decision that might be overdue for a redecision?