Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

There is a big difference between reasons for a decision and justifications created after a decision. Justifications, just a farce, succeed unless someone cares and is attentive.

Someone announces a decision; then they announce the reasons behind the decision.

Question: did they use those reasons in deciding or did they create those reasons after deciding as a justification for their decision?

Why would anyone care to know the answer to that question?

If we don’t care about the decision, we don’t care. If, however, we do care, the answer to the question is important. If the “reasons” being touted are really “justifications,” the deciders didn’t really decide. They knew which way they were going and did need any reasons for that. They were merely searching for some nice sounding platitudes to put on a PowerPoint presentation and read while they turned their back to an audience and hoped that no one would notice what they were doing.

Justifications are something created to fill time.

Justifications, however, succeed some 98.6% of the time. They only fail when someone asks the question and pays attention to the answer.