Cognitive Move
Results
Log what the world actually delivered, as measured, next to the prediction it answers. Record the raw number, date, and source before you interpret it or decide who was right. No spin, no rounding toward the story you liked.
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Cognitive Move
Retain
Keep the operation and the authority entirely with the person, with support absent or peripheral.
Cognitive Move
Retire / Archive
Remove obsolete information from active use while keeping what still needs an audit trail.
Cognitive Move
Retire the Stale
Name and date the current version, then remove old copies so no one can mistake them for the live one.
Mental Model
Retirement as Identity Loss
Retirement represents one of the most significant identity transitions in modern life, particularly for knowledge workers whose professional identity is deeply intertwined with their sense of self
Mental Model
Retirement Identity Crisis
For knowledge workers whose identity is deeply fused with their professional role, retirement triggers not relaxation but an identity crisis
Cognitive Move
Retrieve
Surface the right information at the exact moment of action, not buried where no one looks.
Cognitive Move
Retrieve multiple source domains
Before committing to the first familiar pattern that comes to mind, deliberately call up two or three other fields sharing the same relations. Having rivals lets you compare fits and choose one, instead of defending whichever analogy happened to arrive first.
Mental Model
Retrospective
A structured post-project review examining what went well, what didn't, and what to change going forward
Mental Model
Retrospective Facilitation Guide (Sprint Retro)
A structured protocol for team retrospectives — periodic meetings to reflect on process and continuously improve
Cognitive Move
Retune authority
Change how much someone is allowed to decide on their own, without changing what they do: give more freedom where the track record is good and mistakes are easy to undo, and less where a mistake is expensive or permanent.
Mental Model
Return On Investment
ROI commonly expresses net benefit relative to an investment cost as a percentage over a stated period
Mental Model
Return on Norms
A practitioner metaphor for comparing the benefits and costs of shared behavioral expectations
Cognitive Move
Returns or resists
When a problem comes back after you fix it, or pushes back when you change it, something may be feeding it a fresh turn each time.
Cognitive Move
Reverse direction
Ask whether the arrow points the other way: what you called the effect may be driving what you called the cause, or the two events happened in an order that rules your story out. Check which came first, by date.
Mental Model
Reverse Mentoring
Reverse mentoring flips the traditional relationship: junior members mentor senior leaders on topics where juniors have superior knowledge—typically technology, cultural trends, or generational perspectives
Cognitive Move
Reverse the Arrow
When forward reasoning branches too widely, start from the endpoint and ask what had to be true immediately before it.
Cognitive Move
Reverse the order
Run the same steps backward and ask what breaks or improves. It is a stress test on order dependence: if flipping the sequence changes nothing, order was never the issue, and you should look elsewhere for the real constraint.
Cognitive Move
Reverse the sign
Redesign the response so it opposes the harmful state instead of accidentally feeding it.
Cognitive Move
Reversibility
Spell out how you get back out. Name the trigger, the timing, and the mechanics of unwinding or reviewing the commitment, so a yes is not permanent. Siblings change what you may do; this one sets the door back out.
Mental Model
Reversibility Test Protocol
A binary classification protocol for matching decision speed to decision stakes, based on Jeff Bezos's Type 1/Type 2 door framework
Mental Model
Reversible and Irreversible Decisions (One-Way or Two-Way-Doors Decisions)
A heuristic for matching deliberation and trial scope to the actual difficulty and consequences of reversing a decision.