Michael Lopp lists out seven kinds of decisions ranging from the vanilla to inspired to delegated. Perhaps the one that provoked the biggest response from me is the type he calls “minimum viable”:

Your investigation into their justification reveals that they chose a decision that was not designed to be good; it was constructed to offend the fewest humans. This is not leadership — it’s fear.

I can’t tell you how many “decisions” I’ve seen in organizations which are covered with a veneer of rational-sounding company jargon. They fall apart as soon as you dig into them, leaving you with a sinking feeling as you realize the motivation is strictly political.

The saddest part is that since there is no real substance to these kinds of decisions, they quickly crumble and get replaced with newer ones of the same type. The inevitable result: the organization forgets what its real purpose is.