Most planning dies in loops. Too many options. Too much reversibility. People debate, tweak, revise—because they can. As long as the door can swing back open, no one commits. Momentum stalls. Confidence erodes. Time bleeds out. The work never locks in.

Principle

You move fastest when your decisions remove the option to back out. One-way doors force execution. They clarify intention, burn ambiguity, and activate urgency. They make action irreversible. Not every move should be one-way. But if nothing is, nothing moves.

Application

Use the One-Way Door Protocol to force commitment and trigger progress:

  1. Label Every Decision Type
  2. Binary: Is this a one-way door (irreversible) or two-way door (reversible)? Default to two-way unless stuck—then convert.
  3. Convert When Stalling Persists
  4. If a decision has been open >72 hours without movement, make it one-way. Publish it. Launch it. Ship it. Book it. Sign it. Let the decision burn the indecision.
  5. Public Commitment Locks
  6. Say it out loud. Tell the client. Announce the date. One-way doors work when they’re visible. External force turns theory into movement.
  7. Use Irreversibility as Design
  8. Architect workflows where backing out is more painful than finishing: no “draft mode,” no soft saves, no optional delivery. Force the push.
  9. Assign Owners to Door Pulls
  10. Every one-way decision must have a name next to it. Not a team. A name. The person who pulls it owns the next phase. This collapses diffusion.
  11. Track One-Way to Result
  12. For every forced decision, note the consequence. Did speed improve? Did output increase? Use this as your map of when irreversibility pays off.

Limit / Cost

Too many one-way doors create panic, rigidity, and error. You’ll burn capital—social, financial, emotional—if you force irreversible decisions in fragile systems. Use it like a blade, not a hammer. When a system loops, one-way it. When a system flows, let it run.