A visual flowchart that maps out different decision paths and their potential outcomes, showing how choices lead to various consequences. In business, it's used for strategic planning, problem-solving, and process documentation.
Developed in the 1960s in operations research and statistics, combining 'decision' from Latin 'decidere' (to cut off) and 'tree' referring to the branching visual structure. The business application grew as companies needed systematic ways to analyze complex choices.
Decision trees force you to think through all the 'what-if' scenarios before you're in the middle of a crisis. They're especially powerful because they make hidden assumptions visible—you might realize you're betting everything on something you're not actually sure about.
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