When a decision produces a bad result, everyone examines it.
When it produces a good result, almost nobody does.
And that is a problem.
Because a successful outcome does not automatically prove that the decision behind it was good.
Sometimes we succeed because we evaluated the situation well.
Sometimes we succeed because reality was generous.
The result looks identical.
The quality of the decision is not.
Imagine a leader who ignores an important risk to save time.
The project succeeds anyway because nothing unexpected happens.
The shortcut is celebrated as confidence.
The leader is praised for being decisive.
The team learns to repeat the same behaviour.
Then, months later, the same shortcut produces a disaster.
Everyone studies the second decision—the one connected to failure.
But the real mistake began earlier, when the first successful outcome taught the organisation the wrong lesson.
This is called outcome bias: judging the quality of a decision by what happened afterwards, instead of by the reasoning used when the decision was made.
It is one of the most dangerous distortions in leadership.
A poor result can expose a weakness.
A good result can hide it.
That is why intelligent teams do not review only what went wrong.
They also examine what went right.
What worked because of our choices?
What worked despite them?
Which risks did we manage?
Which ones simply did not materialise?
What almost failed without anybody noticing?
And would we make the same decision again if we had to repeat it ten times?
These questions separate competence from luck.
They do not diminish success.
They make success useful.
A good decision deserves recognition even when reality produces an unfortunate result.
A weak decision deserves examination even when reality allows us to win.
This is not pessimism.
It is how performance becomes repeatable.
Because the purpose of reviewing a decision is not to decide who deserves praise or blame.
It is to understand what should—and should not—be repeated.
Failure is not the only moment that requires honesty.
Success does too.
Sometimes even more.
Because failure forces us to look.
Success gives us permission to look away.
Silvia
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