Read time: 3.6 min.

{{First Name | My friend}},

I’ve been having conversations with C-suite leaders at some of the most well-regarded financial institutions in the country. I want to share some of what is coming out of these early ones and make an ask of you. Please read to the end.

One thing I've heard in multiple conversations is that a reversibility test is quietly shaping how much explicit process a decision gets within the executive team. In other words, how hard a decision is to reverse is influencing how much rigor a leadership team applies before committing to it. This approach is not new to me. What grabs my attention, however, is that because this test is informal and intuitive rather than shared and explicit, it may function inconsistently, being applied in some contexts and not in others.

Ultimately, this observation validates one of the structural conditions the Decision Architecture Assessment (more on this shortly) is designed to surface. It also signals ways the instrument might go deeper into how leadership teams define the criteria for when a decision should be revisited.

Every conversation I am having sharpens my work in real time. It’s what I hoped would happen when I started my outreach, but I continue to be surprised by how much energy I get from each one. The willingness of the leaders to engage candidly continues to expand my lens and spark more curiosity.

The goal of each conversation is simple: to listen closely to how decision architecture is actually functioning inside community banks, regional banks, and credit unions. We're exploring what's working, what isn't, and what remains informal and intuitive when it could be explicit and shared across the leadership table.

These exchanges are directly informing the refinement of the Decision Architecture Assessment, an instrument I've built to make the structural conditions governing execution visible to the teams carrying them. The assessment is designed to produce a structured view of the conditions that determine whether decisions hold, move cleanly, and survive pressure within their organization. It identifies where decision architecture is sound, where it is vulnerable, and what structural conditions within their organization must be addressed for decisions to move cleanly under pressure.

This work has roots that go back further than the assessment itself. Before this assessment existed, I had several experiences that shaped how I think about measurement.

While still serving as an Army officer, I was selected for a one-year fellowship at Gallup in Washington DC. I worked closely with the Research Directors responsible for Francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa, and Latin America on datasets from the World Poll. Those collaborations led to the publication of articles on Gallup.com that drew from both the World Poll and the Health and Wellbeing datasets.

That fellowship laid a critical part of my foundation. After that year, I deployed to Djibouti, which gave me the opportunity to build and administer an assessment instrument for Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa. This comprehensive instrument was used to measure and report progress against objectives to AFRICOM, our higher headquarters.

What emerged from these diverse experiences was more than exposure to rigorous methodology. Throughout, I gained a deep understanding of and appreciation for what it means to build an instrument that actually measures what it claims to measure, at scale, across contexts that don't always cooperate. That understanding is what I carry into the Decision Architecture Assessment.

I'm looking to connect with C-suite leaders at community banks, regional banks, and credit unions in the $5B to $50B asset range. My goal is to have as many introductions as possible in progress (or complete) by August 7th.

If you have a relationship with someone in that space who might find value in this kind of conversation, I'd genuinely welcome a warm introduction. Just reply to this email and I'm happy to provide you a blurb you can use to make the introduction.

And if you're in this space yourself and would find value in participating, please reach out directly.

I am determined to ensure every leader receives as much as they give. Therefore, every participant will receive a share-out of what I'm learning across the full set of conversations, because this call is designed to offer value in both directions, not just to my research.

Finally, stay tuned. More of what I'm learning from these conversations will find its way into this newsletter.

Until Next Sunday,

Shawnette Rochelle, MBA, PCC
Founder, Excellence Unbounded
Executive Decision Systems That Drive Organizational Momentum

If you’re curious to learn more about my work with executive teams, you can find it here.

If you want to have a conversation to learn more, schedule it here.