Frameworks and Playbooks
The Decision Memo: A Framework That Ends Circular Debates
A one-to-two-page decision memo is the highest-leverage document a Chief of Staff can institutionalize. The structure, in five sections.
Why memos beat slides
Slides hide reasoning; prose exposes it. A short written memo forces the author to state the problem, the options, and a recommendation clearly enough to be disagreed with. That is what makes decisions fast.
The five-section structure
Keep it under two pages. Every section earns its place.
- Context: the situation and why a decision is needed now, in three or four sentences.
- Question: the single decision to make, phrased so it can be answered yes, no, or with a choice among options.
- Options: two to four real alternatives with honest trade-offs, including the do-nothing case.
- Recommendation: the author's pick and the reasoning, stated plainly.
- Execution: what happens in the first two weeks if the recommendation is approved, with owners.
How the CoS uses it
The Chief of Staff sets the standard: no decision item gets on the leadership agenda without a memo, and the CoS edits memos for clarity before they circulate. Within a quarter, the quality of debate rises and decision latency drops measurably.