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I had never heard the phrases "one-way door" and "two-way door" in decision making until yesterday, and now this is the 2nd time I've seen it. The person who me

I had never heard the phrases "one-way door" and "two-way door" in decision making until yesterday, and now this is the 2nd time I've seen it. The person who mentioned it to me yesterday works at Amazon. Funny coincidence... I'm curious about how one decides whether a decision even is one-way or two-way? I can think of some contrived examples (demolishing a building is one-way, deciding where to get lunch today is two-way) but what about more complex and realistic examples? Is it that the cost to reverse that decision is so high that it's effectively a one-way choice? And can you make a one-way idea into a two-way idea in some scenarios?

pwaivers 8y ago
I think it's more of a guiding principle rather than a steadfast rule. Like I would think "releasing code to production" is a one-way door. Even though it can be undone, it can have pretty bad consequences and breaks existing protocols. On the other hand "researching a new topic" cannot be technically undone, but it is a two-way door because there is not any harm if it goes wrong and you're working in the best interest of your team.