Notice the decision
Most leadership choices are made in the flow of the day without being seen as choices at all.
In practice: The CEO pauses on any decision that carries strong emotion and names it plainly.
The 27 models
WCRC-GLC-20 — The Modern Sages
Ramana Maharshi
The WCRC Who-Am-I Root Enquiry
Trace each decision to the one who wants it.
THE MODEL
The WCRC Who-Am-I Root Enquiry
A decision discipline for leaders under pressure from many thoughts and demands. The leader notices a decision, asks who in them wants it (ego, fear, habit or a settled sense of purpose) and traces it back to that root before acting. Much of the noise drops away, and what remains is acted on calmly.
Anchor teaching: Nan Yar? (Who am I?)
This is a selection of teachers linked with the Hindu tradition, not a ranking. The models offer management reflection, not religious instruction.
WCRC is not affiliated with or endorsed by any teacher or organisation discussed.
MODEL STRUCTURE
How it works
Ask 'who wants this?'
Behind each decision sits a wanting self: the part that fears loss, wants credit or defends a past call.
In practice: Before signing off, the CEO asks which part of them wants this outcome and writes the answer down.
Trace to the root identity
Atma vichara (self-enquiry)Following the question back reveals whether the decision serves the leader's ego or the purpose the leader actually holds.
In practice: The CEO checks the decision against the organisation's stated purpose, setting personal reputation aside.
Rest in what remains
Once the noisy motives are seen, a quieter clarity is left; it needs a moment of stillness to be heard.
In practice: The CEO protects a few minutes of silence before major calls, with no devices and no agenda.
Act from stillness
Action that comes from settled clarity is steadier and easier for others to trust than action driven by agitation.
In practice: The CEO announces the decision with its reasoning and accepts the result without defending it compulsively.
TEACHING AND CONTEXT
The thinking behind it
In mid-July 1896, at his uncle's house in Madurai, a sudden fear of death came over the 16-year-old Venkataraman. As Sri Ramanasramam records, he lay down still like a corpse and asked what it is that dies. He found that the 'I' remained, untouched, and the fear of death never returned. One honest question, followed to its root, settled what years of worry could not.
Self-enquiry: trace every thought back to the one who has it; holding the question 'Who am I?' quietens other thoughts and the mind subsides into its source.
Who Am I? (Nan Yar), Q10, tr. T. M. P. Mahadevan, © Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai (WCRC paraphrase; check wording before quoting)The 'I'-thought is the root: it is the first thought, and all others follow it. Find its source and the rest falls away.
Who Am I? (Nan Yar), Q9, tr. T. M. P. Mahadevan, © Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai (WCRC paraphrase)"Happiness is the very nature of the Self." It is not found in objects.
Who Am I? (Nan Yar), Q24, tr. T. M. P. Mahadevan, © Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai.Surrender is equal to enquiry: giving oneself fully, leaving no room for other thoughts, reaches the same goal.
Who Am I? (Nan Yar), Q18, tr. T. M. P. Mahadevan, © Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai (WCRC paraphrase); BritannicaOPERATING MODEL
From principle to practice
Inputs
- Constant stream of demands and options
- Leader's competing motives
- Stated organisational purpose
- Protected time for reflection
Practices
- Pause on emotionally charged decisions
- Name the motive behind each choice
- Check choices against purpose
- Short daily silence before key calls
Outputs
- Fewer reactive decisions
- Decisions with stated reasoning
- Less variability between similar judgements
- Calmer leadership presence in crises
Outcomes
- Strategy that holds under pressure
- Higher trust in leadership judgement
- Leaders who last without burning out
- Organisation clear about who it is
BENEFIT MODEL
Who it is for
leader
The leader spends less energy on noise and ego-driven choices, and gains a steady centre that holds through crises.
employees
Teams receive decisions that are explained and consistent, so they can plan without second-guessing the mood at the top.
customers
Customers deal with a company whose choices are driven by its purpose, which makes its behaviour predictable.
investors
Investors see fewer reactive reversals and a leadership that can explain why each major call was made.
society
Leaders who act from clarity in place of fear make fewer harmful decisions under pressure.
WCRC MODEL PARAMETERS
Model emphasis
The scores describe this model's emphasis on each parameter. They are not scores for a person or organisation.
Vision Quotient5 / 5
Impact Index2 / 5
Innovation Score2 / 5
People Leadership3 / 5
Stakeholder Trust4 / 5
Resilience Factor5 / 5
Global Mindset1 / 5
THE AI AGE
Why it matters now
When AI does more of the work, leaders and companies face the identity question directly: who are we, if not what we do? The pressure on attention is also rising; Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index reports employees are interrupted every 2 minutes during core hours, 275 times a day [4]. Kahneman, Sibony and Sunstein show how judgements that should be identical vary with mood and time of day [2]; tracing a decision to its root is one way to reduce that noise. Ramana's question gives a leader a fixed point when the options multiply faster than anyone can review them.
EXECUTION
Put the model to work
Before your next emotionally charged decision, write down which part of you wants the outcome, then check it against the organisation's stated purpose.
Founder and CEO
- Notice charged decisions: From the first week, pause on any decision that carries strong emotion and name it plainly to yourself. Keep a short list of them.
- Write who wants this: Before signing off a major decision, write down which part of you wants the outcome: fear, credit, habit or settled purpose. Do it every time, briefly.
- Check against stated purpose: Test each major decision against the organisation's stated purpose, with your personal reputation set aside. Then test it with at least one colleague who sees it differently.
- Keep silence before big calls: Protect a few minutes of silence with no devices and no agenda before every major decision, and a short silence every working day. Stop the enquiry once the motive is clear, so it never becomes paralysis.
- Announce with reasons: Share each major decision with its reasoning and accept the result without defending it compulsively. Do not use stillness to avoid conflict the decision requires.
Company
- Audit decision quality (CEO office with company secretary): Review recent board and leadership decisions for written rationale, reversals within six months and the reasons behind them. Run a first noise audit on a sample case.
- Pilot in the leadership team (CEO and leadership team): For a quarter, record purpose and motive alongside each major leadership decision and hold a short silence before the call. Compare reversals and consistency with the baseline.
- Embed rationale in governance (Board and company secretary): Make a written statement of purpose and motive part of every board-level decision paper and minute. Keep protected reflection time in senior calendars before major decisions.
- Train managers in root enquiry (CHRO and all people managers): Teach managers to name the motive behind their own decisions and to test them with others before acting. Use recent real decisions as cases, and warn against enquiry without action.
- Track judgement and reversals (Strategy office with company secretary): Report decision rationale coverage, reversal rate, judgement consistency from noise audits and protected reflection time. Review them every quarter with the board.
- Scale and test with others (CEO and board): Extend the discipline to business-unit decisions once reversals fall, and check each year that the enquiry is tested against stakeholders' views rather than done alone. Watch for leaders using detachment to avoid hard conversations.
Readiness check
Before starting
- Do our major decisions carry a written statement of purpose and the motive behind them?
- Do our senior leaders protect time to think before big calls?
- Do we test leaders' decisions against other people's views before acting?
Phase 1 · Diagnose and commit
Find out how decisions are actually made now, and commit the leadership team to tracing motive before acting.
- Pull the past year's board-level decisions and record how many carried a written statement of purpose and motive.
- Record the major decisions reversed within six months and the reason for each.
- Run a noise audit: give the same case to several decision-makers and measure the spread of their answers.
- Analyse senior leaders' calendars for uninterrupted time held before major decisions.
Deliverable: A decision-quality baseline covering rationale coverage, reversals, judgement spread and reflection time.
Gate: Baseline recorded for all four KPIs, and the leadership team has agreed which decisions count as major for the pilot.
Phase 2 · Pilot and prove
Prove in the leadership team that the root enquiry improves decisions without slowing them.
- Each leader notices emotionally charged decisions and names them plainly in a decision journal.
- Before signing off, each leader asks 'who wants this?' and writes down whether ego, fear, habit or purpose is driving the choice.
- Each decision is traced to the root by checking it against the organisation's stated purpose, and one colleague reviews the written motive so the enquiry is not done alone.
- Leaders protect a few minutes of silence before major calls, then announce the decision with its reasoning.
Deliverable: A decision journal for the pilot with motive, purpose check, colleague review and outcome for each major decision.
Gate: Every major pilot decision has a written motive, a purpose check and a colleague review, and each was taken by its agreed deadline.
Phase 3 · Embed and scale
Write the enquiry into governance and spread it to managers.
- The company secretary adds a short purpose-and-motive statement to every board paper.
- Train managers in the root enquiry using their own recent decisions.
- Protect reflection time on senior calendars before scheduled major decisions.
- Set a decision deadline for every major call, so enquiry does not become paralysis.
Deliverable: A revised board paper template, protected calendar time and a trained manager group.
Gate: Rationale coverage is reported for all board-level decisions, and every major decision has a deadline set when it is opened.
Phase 4 · Sustain and renew
Keep the enquiry honest, tested against others and connected to the people affected.
- Repeat the noise audit each year and compare the spread of judgement with the baseline.
- Review the reasons for reversals and check whether they trace back to an unexamined motive.
- Check for withdrawal: has any leader used stillness to avoid conflict?
- Test the root enquiry against stakeholders' views by bringing an affected party's perspective into major decision reviews.
Deliverable: An annual decision-quality review to the board covering rationale, reversals, consistency and reflection time.
Gate: The noise audit has been repeated and compared with the baseline, and every major reversal of the year has a recorded reason.
Governance
sponsor: The CEO, with the board chair's support, because the enquiry has to start with the person who signs the largest decisions.
lead: The company secretary, who keeps the decision log, the board paper template and the reversal record.
forum: The board every quarter, with a monthly review of the decision log in the leadership meeting.
decision_rights: The lead can require a purpose-and-motive statement before a paper goes to the board; extending a decision deadline or exempting a decision from the process goes to the sponsor.
Cadence
Daily: Leaders note any emotionally charged decision and write down who in them wants the outcome.
Weekly: Each leader reviews their decision journal with one colleague who tests the written motive.
Monthly: The decision log is reviewed in the leadership meeting, including any decision past its deadline.
Quarterly: The board checks rationale coverage and reversals.
Annually: A repeat noise audit and calendar analysis of reflection time.
By company stage
startup
The founder keeps a short decision journal, writing the motive behind each big call and checking it with a co-founder or adviser. A few minutes of silence before hiring, firing or fundraising decisions is enough.
scaleup
The leadership team keeps a shared decision log with motive, purpose check and deadline, and managers are trained in the enquiry. Reversals are recorded with their reasons.
enterprise
Every board paper carries a purpose-and-motive statement, the company secretary keeps the decision log, and a noise audit runs each year. The board reviews rationale coverage and reversals each quarter.
Success looks like
- Leaders can say, for their last major decision, which motive they found and how they checked it against purpose.
- Fewer major decisions are reversed, and those that are reversed have a clear recorded reason.
- Different leaders given the same case reach more consistent answers than before.
MEASUREMENT AND LIMITS
What to watch
Decision rationale coverage
Share of board-level decisions recorded with a written statement of purpose and motive, from board minutes.
Reversal rate
Number of major decisions reversed within six months, from the decision log, with the reason for each reversal.
Judgement consistency
Periodic noise audit: give the same case to several decision-makers and measure the spread of their answers.
Protected reflection time
Calendar analysis of uninterrupted time senior leaders hold before major decisions.
Failure modes
- Enquiry becomes paralysis: the leader keeps asking 'who wants this?' and never decides.
- Stillness used as withdrawal: the leader retreats from conflict and calls it detachment.
- Self-focus that ignores stakeholders: the root enquiry is done alone and never tested against others' views.
Execution risks
- Enquiry turns into paralysis, and decisions stall while leaders keep asking 'who wants this?'.: Decisions pass their deadlines, and the backlog in the decision log grows. Mitigation: Set a deadline when each decision is opened and require the sponsor's approval to extend it.
- Stillness is used as withdrawal from conflict and called detachment.: Leaders avoid difficult meetings and delegate confrontations they should handle. Mitigation: Review in the monthly forum which hard conversations each leader has held, and coach those who avoid them.
- Written motives become boilerplate that always names 'purpose'.: Motive statements are near-identical across decisions and never name fear, ego or habit. Mitigation: Have the reviewing colleague challenge any motive statement that names only purpose, and sample them at the board.
- The enquiry stays inside the leader's head and ignores stakeholders.: Decisions are reversed after stakeholders raise objections that were never sought. Mitigation: Bring an affected party's view into the review of every major decision before it is final.
RESEARCH SOURCES
Sources and notes
- Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Kahneman, D., Sibony, O., & Sunstein, C. R. (2021). Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. New York: Little, Brown Spark.
- Goleman, D. (1998). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, 76(6), 93–102 (republished as HBR 'Best of', January 2004).
- Microsoft. (2025, April 23). 2025: The Year the Frontier Firm Is Born. Work Trend Index Annual Report. Microsoft WorkLab.
The WCRC Guru Management Codex and its 27 models are proprietary WCRC models. © WCRC. All rights reserved.