Caliper Assessment Decision-Making and Strategic Thinking 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A manager notices that her team consistently agrees with her proposals in meetings but then fails to execute. The most likely strategic issue is:
- The team lacks the technical skills to execute
- Psychological safety is low, preventing honest feedback during planning (Correct answer)
- The proposals are too detailed to implement
- The team needs better project management tools
Correct answer: Psychological safety is low, preventing honest feedback during planning
When teams agree in meetings but fail in execution, it often signals low psychological safety where honest concerns go unexpressed, creating false buy-in.
Question 2: Which of the following best describes 'satisficing' as a decision-making strategy?
- Optimizing every variable to find the absolute best solution
- Selecting the first option that meets a defined threshold of acceptability (Correct answer)
- Delaying decisions until all options have been exhausted
- Always choosing the lowest-risk available option
Correct answer: Selecting the first option that meets a defined threshold of acceptability
Satisficing, coined by Herbert Simon, means choosing the first option that satisfies minimum criteria rather than searching exhaustively for the optimal solution.
Question 3: When building a strategic plan, which step is most commonly skipped that leads to execution failure?
- Setting ambitious goals
- Identifying the specific assumptions the plan depends on being true (Correct answer)
- Assigning owners to each initiative
- Setting a timeline for completion
Correct answer: Identifying the specific assumptions the plan depends on being true
Failing to surface and test the key assumptions a strategy rests on leaves organizations blindsided when those assumptions prove false during execution.
Question 4: A leader is choosing between a reversible and an irreversible decision with similar expected outcomes. Strategic best practice suggests:
- Treat both decisions identically since outcomes are similar
- Move faster on reversible decisions and invest more analysis in irreversible ones (Correct answer)
- Always choose the irreversible option for stronger commitment signaling
- Delegate irreversible decisions to reduce personal accountability
Correct answer: Move faster on reversible decisions and invest more analysis in irreversible ones
Distinguishing reversible from irreversible decisions (Amazon's 'Type 1 vs. Type 2') allows organizations to be bold where stakes are low and careful where they are high.
Question 5: Which of the following describes 'confirmation bias' and its effect on strategic decision-making?
- Seeking out evidence that challenges your current strategy
- Favoring information that confirms existing beliefs while discounting contradictory evidence (Correct answer)
- Over-relying on quantitative data at the expense of qualitative signals
- Making decisions too quickly without consulting others
Correct answer: Favoring information that confirms existing beliefs while discounting contradictory evidence
Confirmation bias causes leaders to build strategies on selectively gathered evidence, reinforcing existing beliefs rather than testing them rigorously.
Question 6: An organization consistently makes decisions that satisfy short-term pressures but undermine long-term strategy. This pattern most likely indicates:
- Insufficient operational capacity
- Misaligned incentive structures that reward short-term results over strategic outcomes (Correct answer)
- Poor communication of the strategy across teams
- A lack of quantitative analysis capability
Correct answer: Misaligned incentive structures that reward short-term results over strategic outcomes
When incentives reward short-term metrics, rational individuals will optimize for them even when this conflicts with stated long-term strategy.
Question 7: In evaluating strategic options, 'opportunity cost' refers to:
- The probability that a chosen strategy will succeed
- The value of the best alternative foregone when a decision is made (Correct answer)
- The financial cost of executing a new initiative
- The risk premium added to uncertain investments
Correct answer: The value of the best alternative foregone when a decision is made
Opportunity cost is the value of the next-best option sacrificed by choosing a particular course of action, and ignoring it leads to incomplete strategic evaluation.
Caliper Assessment Decision-Making and Strategic Thinking 5
A manager notices that her team consistently agrees with her proposals in meetings but then fails to execute.
The most likely strategic issue is: