On May 15, 1536, Anne Boleyn stood trial in London on charges that historians now widely agree were fabricated. The specially-selected jury had essentially predetermined her fate before she even entered the courtroom. Within hours, the Queen of England was condemned to death in what amounted to a judicial sham orchestrated by a king who had already moved on to his next wife.
It's a brutal reminder of what happens when process becomes a mere formality designed to rubber-stamp predetermined outcomes. As tech leaders, we face similar temptations every day—the urge to stack the deck when making hiring decisions, performance reviews, or architectural choices. Maybe we've already decided which vendor to choose or which team member to promote, and we go through the motions of "evaluation" to make it look fair and thorough.
But here's the thing: your team knows when the process is rigged. Just like Henry VIII's court knew Anne's trial was a farce, your developers can smell bias from a mile away. When you predetermine outcomes and use process as theater, you don't just make bad decisions—you erode trust that takes years to rebuild. The best tech leaders I know genuinely wrestle with difficult decisions, create space for dissenting voices, and sometimes get surprised by what their own evaluation processes reveal. Anne Boleyn deserved better than Henry's kangaroo court, and your team deserves better than decision-making theater disguised as process.