How To Make Faster, Better Decisions

Dithering can come at a large cost – not only for your company but also for your personal reputation.

- Helana Wasserman

There is no shortage of spectacular mistakes in the business world. From Kodak, which developed the technology for one of the first digital cameras (and a cellphone prototype), but chose to focus instead on its traditional film based product until it was completely destroyed by cellphones, to Anglo American, who decided to buy and invest billions in the Brazilian iron ore project Minas-Rio, right at the peak of the commodity boom.

Given the huge cost of potentially getting it wrong, making a big call can be debilitating. Often managers endlessly delay key decisions in order to review all possible information, analyses and opinions to make sure they are doing the right thing.

But protracted decision-making is costly too. In the current environment, the fast eat the slow. There can be enormous opportunity costs in waiting to make sure that all moving parts have been considered. Your competitor may come to market first with a similar, even inferior, product and capture the market.

Dithering also comes at a painful cost to your own reputation. Indecision does not instil confidence in your abilities. Teams want to see their manager taking decisive action: hesitation and overthinking create uncertainty.

How to take more effective decisions:

1.Set a strict deadline.

Waiting for all information or for the planets to align perfectly before you make a decision will result in endless delays. Instead, have a realistic deadline (preferably: today) for a decision, make sure you have considered the worst possible outcome of that decision, and live with the consequences.

2. Abandon the pursuit of the perfect decision.