What is the downside? That is the critical question for any kind of decision. Someone has an idea, and they will present the upside. We can save so much money, develop faster, offer better customer service, etc., etc. It is your job as a leader and decision-maker to ferret out the downside.
Lack of downside consideration is behind many questionable business decisions. Twitter seems to offer a new example of Elon’s lack of downside thinking every week. Like “Let’s offer a feature that changes any photo to show the person in a bikini.” Normal people, doing even the most minimal downside consideration, would kill that idea in seconds. But Twitter/X rolled it out – and obviously had to roll it back.
You can do the downside thinking yourself for many decisions. For more complicated scenarios, you might need a dedicated Red Team or outside help to identify the downside. But before any decision, ask yourself: Have we considered the downside?