Have you ever received a vague message from your boss and immediately started imagining everything that could be wrong?

That’s what our brains do when information is incomplete. We fill in the gaps. Under stress and pressure, those assumptions and stories can start influencing our decisions before we even realize it.

In this episode of Clarity Under Pressure, Lisa Larson introduces the 60-Second Reality Check, a practical decision-making tool designed to separate what you know from what you think you know.

The Reality Check uses four simple questions:

Facts: What do I actually know and what can I verify?
Assumptions: What am I treating as true without verifying it?
Unknowns: What information am I missing that could materially change the decision?
Stories: What meaning have I attached to the situation?

This simple framework can help you reduce decision friction, challenge assumptions, avoid reactive decisions, and think more clearly when pressure is high and information is incomplete.

Try it with a decision you’re facing right now.

Before you run with the story, run the Reality Check.

Facts. Assumptions. Unknowns. Stories.

Your processes are only as strong as the people making the decisions and YOU are one of those people.

#DecisionMaking #Leadership #DecisionMakingSkills #LeadershipDevelopment #DecisionClarity #ClarityUnderPressure #ExecutiveLeadership