Decision Criteria Template
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Decision Criteria Template
Free editable Word guide you can copy, fill in, and share with your band. Also readable on this page.
How to use this guide
Template for establishing decision-making criteria. Finish with a weighted criteria list and one named score owner, settled before any real offer lands.
Suggested workflow: Pick the next big call together, agree three criteria and their weights before options surface, and name one score owner. Store the sheet in your shared drive; reopen it when a real offer arrives.
Without criteria, debates are identity contests. Criteria make “good” visible and comparable.
Three to five factors
A working band choosing between two showcase offers does not need a scoring spreadsheet with ten rows; three to five weighted factors cover money, exposure, travel cost, and calendar fit for almost any real call. Longer lists guarantee paralysis and invite members to invent fresh weights the moment their favorite option starts losing.
Set the weights before the offers land, while nobody's pride is attached to an outcome yet. Post the list in the shared drive so everyone scores the same factors, because private scorekeeping after a favorite emerges reads as manipulation even when the math is honest.
No mid-debate goalpost moves
When the factor list itself changes halfway through a debate, wipe the scores and start over with the new list applied to every option. Adjusting weights after seeing which option wins is bad faith, and bandmates remember it long after the specific argument about the festival slot is forgotten.
A gut override is allowed for safety concerns, like refusing a venue with a known electrical problem or a promoter with a harassment history. The person invoking it has to say the reason out loud and put it in the notes, so the veto can be examined later instead of becoming a silent trump card.
Use criteria before emotion peaks
Draft the scoring rules during a quiet week, not the night a support slot offer arrives with a 48-hour deadline. Standards invented mid-crisis bend toward whoever is angriest in the room, and everyone can feel the difference between a principle and a convenience.
A calm-month session of thirty minutes can produce the default list: pay floor, drive radius, load-in burden, audience fit. When the frantic Thursday text comes, the band evaluates the offer against rules it already agreed to instead of negotiating both the rules and the answer at once.
Fill-in: Criteria for next big call
Decision: ________
Criterion 1-3: ________
Weights: ________
Score owner: ________
Putting it into practice
Before the next big call, write three criteria first.
FAQ
How many criteria are useful?
Three to five weighted factors. Ten criteria guarantee paralysis.
Should criteria be public to the whole band?
Yes for shared decisions. Hidden criteria feel like manipulation.
Can criteria change mid-debate?
Only if you restart scoring. Quietly moving goalposts after seeing outcomes is bad faith.
How do criteria interact with gut feel?
Gut can veto safety issues; it should not ignore every scored factor without naming why.
