Write it down before you decide, not after.

A decision recorded only as its outcome cannot be reconstructed later — the reasoning was never written anywhere. This is the minimum sufficient record: seven fields, one page, filled in at the moment of decision. The two signal columns are the point. A decision with no contradicting signals has not been examined.

Decision Canvas
01 · Decision statement What exactly is being decided, and by when
02 · Recommendation One of four. Defer is a real answer.
60%
03 · Supporting signals Facts, and why each points this way
04 · Contradicting signals If this is empty, stop
05 · Key risks What goes wrong, and is it reversible
06 · Evidence Where each signal came from, with dates
07 · Decision owner A named person. Not a team.
08 · Outcome Completed on the review date, not now. This is the field that makes the record worth keeping.

Section 08 is the point. Sections 01 to 07 are completed before the decision; section 08 is completed on the review date. A record without an outcome is an archive. A record with one is a training set — it is what lets a similar decision next quarter inherit reasoning that turned out to be right, and lets one that turned out badly be demoted rather than repeated. Most organisations capture the first seven and never return. How to use it. Fill it in before the decision, not as a write-up afterwards. Keep the completed canvas with the transaction it relates to, not in a separate folder. Set the review date at the same time — a decision with no review date is a decision nobody will learn from. And when a similar situation arrives, find the last one before starting: that is the entire mechanism by which an organisation stops deciding the same thing twice.