Each option against the contract, the programme and the cost. Who was asked first. A recommendation that says what it depends on. The road closure and the hospital programme.
A client should decide with the time and money in front of them, not on my preference. That sounds obvious. In practice most advice to clients arrives as a recommendation with the alternatives already stripped out, so the client is choosing between agreeing and arguing. A decision paper does the opposite. Each option is set against the contract, the programme and the cost, with the consequences visible, then a recommendation, then the decisions still to be made.
Every option gets the same treatment. What the contract says about it, including who carries the risk and what notices it triggers. What it does to the programme, on the accepted programme logic, not on a feeling. What it costs, including the costs that don’t show up on the contractor’s price, like traffic management, consent conditions or a claim later. An option that has only been costed on the obvious line is not costed.
When a week long road closure was proposed on a state highway job, the paper costed each option and recorded who had been asked before the paper was written. The Police, the AA, the bus operator, St John, FENZ, the council and the 2 residents who opposed the closure. Their positions went into the assessment rather than around it. The client could see not just what each option cost but who would object and why, before choosing. That is the difference between a decision that holds and one that gets reopened by the first phone call.
On a regional hospital programme, part of the job was putting more than 20 fire projects across 9 sites into an order the region could fund and deliver. Each one was scored on the clinical areas affected, the condition of the system, the risk and the consequence. That gave a defensible ranking. Then 1 plain question for each: if this system fails tomorrow, is there a plan B. The scoring got the list into order. The question found the 2 or 3 that couldn’t wait. They didn’t sit where the scores put them.
A paper without a recommendation is an abdication. Make the call, say why and say what it depends on. If the recommendation changes when a number moves, say which number and by how much. If it depends on a stakeholder’s position that hasn’t been confirmed, say so. The client is entitled to know how firm the ground is.
Every decision creates the next 3. Who instructs the contractor and by when. Whether a notice goes out under the contract. Who tells the residents. A paper that ends with the recommendation leaves those to be discovered later. A paper that ends with the list gets them done.
Options papers written to make the preferred option look good, with the alternatives costed on a bad day and the preference costed on a good one. A client can smell that and it costs you the next one. Options that aren’t real, included to make 3. And the paper that arrives after the decision has effectively been made on site, which is a record, not a decision paper.
Options against the contract, the programme and the cost, the same way for each. Who was asked and what they said. A recommendation with its dependencies stated. The decisions still to be made, with an owner and a date. Short enough to be read before the meeting, because a paper that isn’t read isn’t a decision paper either. Decision papers, programmes and business cases →
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Common questions
Each option against the contract, the programme and the cost with the same rigour. Who was consulted and what they said. A recommendation with what it depends on. And the decisions still to be made, with owners and dates.
Make it. The client is paying for judgement. What the paper also has to do is show the alternatives honestly and say what the recommendation depends on, so the client can disagree on the facts rather than on trust.
Score each project on consistent criteria, for a hospital programme the clinical areas affected, condition, risk and consequence, to get a defensible order. Then ask each one a plain question, like whether there is a plan B if it fails tomorrow, to find the ones the scoring undersells.
Because a decision that holds is one where the objections were known before it was made. Recording who was asked and what they said lets the client choose with the opposition visible rather than discovering it afterwards.
Short enough to be read before the meeting. The detail sits in attachments. The paper carries the options, the tests, the recommendation and the next decisions.
Have a specific question
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