Last week, after a very long time, I had the opportunity to spend some time with colleagues reflecting on leadership tools and practices. A concept that really intrigued me and one that I think could aid a lot of businesses to be braver is the concept of “One-way and Two-way doors”, a brilliant analogy from non other than Jeff Bezos.

Cracking open One-Way Doors

One-way doors are the Big Bads of decision-making. You know, like that moment in the movies where the protagonist walks through a door, it slams shut, and there’s no turning back. You’re committed, for better or for worse.

One-way door decisions are the game-changers. Like when Amazon decided to expand from books to becoming “The Everything Store.” Bezos knew this was a one-way door decision, but he went for it, and well, we all know how that turned out.

Bezos himself warns us, “Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible – one-way doors – and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation.”

Strolling through Two-Way Doors

Then there are two-way doors. These are the chill decisions. You walk through, take a look around, and if you don’t like what you see, you stroll right back out the way you came in.

Bezos encourages speed when it comes to these decisions. In a letter to shareholders, he advised, “If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before. We can call these Type 1 decisions. But most decisions aren’t like that – they are changeable, reversible – they’re two-way doors. If you’ve made a suboptimal Type 2 decision, you don’t have to live with the consequences for that long. You can reopen the door and go back through.”

Amazon Prime is a great example of a two-way door decision. Bezos and his team were not entirely sure how it would play out, but they decided to give it a shot. The idea was innovative but reversible. Now, it’s a massive success.

Transforming One-Way Doors into Two-Way Doors

So, you’re probably wondering if we can ever turn a one-way door into a two-way door? Bezos would probably say yes, with a bit of careful planning and a sprinkle of creativity.

Consider Amazon’s entry into the cloud computing business with AWS. On the face of it, it seems like a classic one-way door decision, right? But Bezos and his team started small, built a solid customer base, and then gradually expanded their services. This approach made the decision more flexible and reversible, turning a one-way door into a two-way door.

What this enables….

In business and probably in life too, Jeff Bezos’ one-way and two-way doors concept is a pretty nifty way to navigate decision-making. Before making a decision, ponder: is this a one-way or a two-way door? Can I charge ahead or do I need to tread carefully? Using this strategy can make the whole decision-making process a heck of a lot smoother and identify opportinuties where we can be just that little bit braver knowing that it is a two-way door.