What I've observed inside Boards, Executive Teams and Innovation Programs:
Senior decisions rarely fail due to lack of intelligence, effort or data.
They fail because judgement narrows under pressure.
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Data is interpreted in one way.
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Metrics replace insight — AI adoption compounds the problem.
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Technical teams are tasked with abstract problems.
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Consensus grows as interpretation collapses.
When interpretive range narrows — insight disappears.
HOW I EXAMINE JUDGEMENT
Before ideas are generated, strategies approved or capital committed, I slow the decision down to expose how it is being interpreted.
I pay attention to where interpretation narrows — where experience substitutes for insight, where consensus forms without challenge and where confidence appears prematurely.
This is where judgement fails — quietly, upstream and at expense.
-Christopher S. Sellers
EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
STRESS TEST
Most executive decisions never reach optimal insight.
Not because of intelligence, but because interpretive range collapses early.
01
INTERPRETIVE COLLAPSE
Leadership default to a single interpretation of data.
Alternative readings disappear early.
02
SHALLOW
DECISIONS
Decisions feel rigorous, but lack depth.
Confidence increases as insight declines.
03
TECHNICAL
MISATTRIBUTION
Experience and technical skill are mistaken for insight.
They are not correlated.
04
QUALITY DISTORTION
Ideas are evaluated on clarity and familiarity, not value.
This systematically favours basic thinking.
05
LOCKED OUTCOMES
Once commitment forms, sub-optimal decisions harden. Optimal insight is no longer achievable.
The Executive Insight Stress Test objectively exposes this decision-making pattern.
Not through opinion — by auditing data interpretation under constraint.
WHERE INSIGHT IS AT RISK
Judgement degrades predictably under specific conditions.
These are not execution risks, they are judgement risks — upstream.
Risk increases when decisions are:
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High-stakes and expensive to reverse.
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Made under pressure, ambiguity or incomplete information.
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Subject to board, regulatory or capital market scrutiny.
Insight diminishes when:
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Interpretation converges early and remains unchallenged.
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Innovation efforts fall short, despite talent and investment.
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The cost of being wrong exceeds the cost of slowing down.
HOW THIS WORK
IS APPLIED
Discrete, time-bound, diagnostic.
Applied before strategic commitment hardens — before execution makes failure expensive.
Boards and Executive Teams facing high-stakes decisions and major strategic commitments.
Executive teams operating under regulatory, capital or reputational pressure.
Innovation and strategy leaders whose outcomes are externally scrutinised.
Organisations where technical excellence is high — but insight is inconsistent.
CHRISTOPHER S. SELLERS
Author of Applied Creativity and Why Smart People Aren’t Creative.
Advisor to boards, executive teams, and innovation programs.
Founder and CCO, Vault Financial.
Creator of the Six Creative Skill Sets and the Executive Insight Stress Test.
Focused on judgement, insight, and decision quality under pressure.
Innovation SME, Australian Institute of Management.