Below you will find a full list of sources and side notes referred in "The Buck Stops Here".
① “The Buck Stops Here” — origin & Truman’s own words
“On my desk I have a motto which says ‘The Buck Stops Here.’ The President—whoever he is—has to decide. He can’t pass the buck. No one else can do the deciding for him.” — Harry S. Truman, Farewell Address, January 15, 1953. The page documents the desk sign’s provenance and reproduces Truman’s remarks.
Source: Harry S. Truman Presidential Library — “The Buck Stops Here” Sign
② Why leaders still “pass the buck” (modern accountability)
“When scandals arise… even when choices are delegated, the buck stops at the top.”
Source: Quartz — Mary Steffel, “Psychology explains why so many leaders pass the buck—and who is really to blame” (2016)
③ Decision-making drag in large firms (time spent & waste)
“Managers in a typical large organization spend 37% of their time making decisions, and more than half of this time is ineffective.”
Source: McKinsey (2019) — Decision making in the age of urgency
④ On-time decisions are the exception
“Fewer than half of decisions are made on time.”
Source: McKinsey (2019) — PDF details
⑤ The annual cost of decision drag
“For a typical Fortune 500, that’s ~530,000 days of lost working time, or roughly $250 million in wasted labor costs per year.”
Source: McKinsey (2019) — Decision making in the age of urgency
⑥ Sales-cycle length scales with organization size
“1–10 employees: avg 38 days … 10,001+: 185 days.”
Source: Focus-Digital — “Average Sales Cycle Length by Industry”
⑦ Stakeholders → time-to-decision (explicit extrapolation from 6sense points)
Observed (same 6sense base via Corporate Visions): ~11 people → ~11–11.5 months; ~15.2 people → ~16 months.
Local slope (within this range): (16 − 11.5) / (15.2 − 11) ≈ ~1.1 months per added stakeholder.
Heuristic: each additional stakeholder adds ≈1 month to cycle time across this interval (not a universal constant).
Source: Corporate Visions — “B2B Buying Behavior in 2025: 40 Stats…”
⑧ Decision fatigue — why people avoid deciding
“Making many choices impairs subsequent self-control.” — Vohs et al., JPSP (2008).
Source: (Journal record) APA/JPSP entry (author-posted PDFs are widely available)
⑨ Blame-avoidance logics
Foundational account of how institutions evolve practices to deflect blame rather than improve outcomes.
Source: Cambridge University Press — Weaver (1986), “The Politics of Blame Avoidance,” Journal of Public Policy
⑩ Bystander effect — clear definition + modern review
Definition (APA): a phenomenon in which people fail to offer needed help when others are present (diffusion of responsibility). Modern synthesis reviews mechanisms and boundary conditions.
Sources: APA Dictionary — Bystander effect ; NIH/PMC — Hortensius & de Gelder (2018)
⑪ Productivity lost to sluggish decisions & organizational drag
“Companies lose 15–20% of their productivity annually due to organization and decision inefficiencies.”
Source: Bain & Company — Mankins & Garton, Time, Talent, Energy (overview)
⑫ High demands + low control harm health (Job Demand–Control)
High demands with low decision latitude predict stress, strain, and adverse health outcomes.
Source: PDF — Karasek (1979), Administrative Science Quarterly
⑬ Learned helplessness — what chronic “no say” breeds
“Operationally, learned helplessness is defined by the fact that nothing you do alters the event.” — Seligman’s summary of the 1975 theory.
Primary: Seligman, M. E. P. (1975), Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death.
Accessible overview (for the quoted phrasing): UPenn author summary (hosted reprint) (or equivalent Seligman reprint page)
⑭ Low control ↔ stress biomarkers, sleep, illness (integrative review)
Broad review of work stress shows decision latitude relates to stress and health outcomes.
Source: SAGE — Ganster & Rosen (2013), Journal of Management
⑮ Inaction regret dominates in the long run
Actions sting more short-term; inactions dominate long-term regret.
Source: PDF — Gilovich & Medvec (1995), Psychological Review
⑯ Autonomy & well-being across cultures
Across multiple countries, perceived autonomy robustly supports well-being and internalization (Self-Determination Theory).
Source: PDF — Chirkov, Ryan, Kim & Kaplan (2003), JPSP
⑰ Decisions → self-efficacy (closed choices strengthen agency)
Foundational theory: perceived capability to execute courses of action increases with mastery and successful choices.
Source: Bandura, A. (1977), Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. (journal access via libraries; for an accessible overview see APA topic pages or standard textbooks)
⑱ Control reduces 18-month mortality (field experiment)
Granting nursing-home residents more choice and control improved health and reduced 18-month mortality.
Source: PubMed — Langer & Rodin (1976), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
⑲ Decisions at the point of information: Toyota Andon/Jidoka
Frontline operators are empowered to stop the line and fix issues—placing decision rights closest to the work.
Sources: Toyota Global — TPS/Jidoka overview ; Toyota Europe — TPS page
⑳ “Disagree and commit” — canonical articulation
“Use the phrase ‘disagree and commit.’ … ‘Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it?’”
Sources: SEC archive — Amazon 2016 Shareholder Letter (EX-99.1) ; About Amazon — 2016 letter highlight
㉑ Intel/Andy Grove precedent (debate → unity)
Vigorous debate before the call; unified execution after.
Source: Business Insider — lineage from Grove to Bezos (2025)
㉒ Cost of Delay — the economic lens for speed vs. precision
“If you only quantify one thing, quantify the Cost of Delay.” CoD = the rate at which expected value decays with time; use it to trade speed vs. precision.
Sources: Reinertsen — The Principles of Product Development Flow (Ch.1 excerpt, PDF) ; PMI / Disciplined Agile — “What is the economic Cost of Delay?” ; Black Swan Farming — CoD explainer
㉓ Frontline information predominance — triangulated justification
Multiple streams indicate that most tacit, decision-critical information is local/frontline: improvement ideas often originate with frontline operators (idea-driven/kaizen literature), lean gains rely on local problem-solving, and the economics of dispersed knowledge (Hayek) argues decisions should reside where information is richest. Treat any exact “70%” as a heuristic.
Source: EconLib — Hayek (1945), “The Use of Knowledge in Society”
㉔ Innovation cultures normalize learning from failure (not recklessness)
• Amazon (Day 1): leaders must be willing to fail in order to invent; lessons learned fuel future wins.
• Spotify: “When we fail, we celebrate the new valuable information that we learned… We don’t fear mistakes but we refuse to repeat them.”
Sources: AWS Executive Insights — Day 1 culture ; Spotify — “The Band Manifesto”
㉕ Nemawashi — definition (consensus groundwork).
Nemawashi (lit. “going around the roots”) is the pre-decision groundwork of sharing a proposal, soliciting input, and building consensus before a formal decision/ringi. Toyota describes it as “the first step in the decision-making process… sharing information about decisions to involve employees.”
Source: Toyota UK — TPS Glossary: “Nemawashi” ; Toyota Magazine — “What is nemawashi?”.
㉖ Low control undermines meaning and agency (daily life).
Across lab, diary, and field studies in Self-Determination Theory, autonomy (a sense of choice/volition) reliably predicts momentary meaning and felt agency: “state-level autonomy relates to… meaning measured at the momentary level” (experience-sampling). Modern models describe agency as a function of opportunity to self-determine actions.
Sources: Kukita, Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi (2022) — How experiencing autonomy contributes to a good life (ESM) ; Zhang et al. (2023) — A functional analysis of personal autonomy.
㉗ “About one-third of psychological well-being” — autonomy’s share (defensible framing).
While there is no universal constant, multiple studies show autonomy (or autonomy support) accounts for a large share of variance in well-being indicators; in several workplace/diary models variance explained is on the order of one-third. For example, perceived autonomy support from supervisors + colleagues explained ~35% of work satisfaction and ~31% of other outcomes in health professionals; daily autonomy robustly predicted daily well-being. Use as order-of-magnitude guidance, not a fixed constant.
Sources: Moreau & Mageau (2011/2013) — The importance of perceived autonomy support… (see full-text details in article); Reis et al. (2000) — Daily Well-Being: Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness.
㉘ Decisions made under difficulty build resilience (approach/problem-focused action).
Longitudinal and prospective studies link approach-oriented coping and problem-solving actions with higher resilience and better mental-health outcomes over time (vs. avoidance). Choosing to act (decide) when stressed is part of this engagement pattern.
Sources: Thompson et al. (2017) — Prospective study: coping ↔ resilience & PTSD symptoms ; Götmann et al. (2021) — engagement coping ↔ well-being under stress ; Luthar et al. (2000) — classic resilience review.
㉙ Deciding → stronger sense of meaning and agency.
Experience-sampling shows moment-to-moment autonomy (exercising choice/decision) boosts meaning, engagement, and affect in daily life.
Source: Kukita, Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi (2022) — ESM findings on autonomy → meaning/engagement.
㉚ “Default aggressive” — definition and provenance (SEAL leadership doctrine).
“Default: Aggressive” = a bias for action: move fast, seize initiative, be proactive toward solving problems — not people; distinct from being reckless or emotional.
Sources: Echelon Front — “What is Extreme Ownership?” (Mindsets for Victory: Default: Aggressive) ; Echelon Front Academy — “Default Aggressive… means you’ve got to be proactive” ; Echelon Front — “Aggressive, not reckless” explainer.
㉛ “The one the Jews come to for counsel is the rabbi.” — Singer, The Magician of Lublin
A New Yorker essay on Singer’s novel paraphrases the line as: “‘He to whom Jews come in audience is a rabbi.’” (context: seekers come to Yasha’s hut for advice and blessing).
Source: The New Yorker — James Wood, “The Fabulist” (2004), discussing The Magician of Lublin.
㉜ “Decision speed has a positive effect on decision quality” (data).
In high-velocity industries, fast decision makers used more (not less) information, generated more alternatives, integrated planning, and achieved stronger performance; fast decision-making was linked to effective performance. Computational/psychophysics models (drift-diffusion) also show conditions where speed and accuracy rise together (higher evidence rate), rebutting a simple speed-vs-quality trade-off.
Sources: Eisenhardt (1989) — Making Fast Strategic Decisions in High-Velocity Environments ; Myers et al. (2022) — drift-diffusion model primer (speed–accuracy conditions).
㉝ “No Authority Gauntlet (NAG)” — direct source.
“Responsibility without authority is the worst management strategy… often called No Authority Gauntlet (NAG) Syndrome.” Practical patterns and examples are detailed.
Source: Ashwani Badlani (2018) — “Accountability without authority: how to drive employees crazy”.