I continue to watch in frustration as some business people procrastinate making a call (decision) – any sort of call. When I ask why are you taking so long to decide, sometimes the answer is “we’re not sure how xyz person is going to react to our decision”. At this point I’ve got my hand across my forehead and my “inner voice” is saying “oh my God, here we go again”.
Here’s some age old truth that decision-makers need to be aware of and accept – which will hopefully reduce the amount of procrastination that goes on generally:
a) There is no such thing as having “perfect information” (i.e. all of the facts) to hand at the time of making ANY decision. Life doesn’t allow this.
b) The best we can do when making decisions is identify what we consider are enough of the main “pro’s” and “con’s” of making the decision in front of us, to then give us enough clarity around the main anticipated implications of making the decision before we make it.
c) It is simply not possible to predict – even using the very best quantitative predictive analysis models – what the “human reaction” of even the most well contemplated decision is going to be. Rather, what decision-makers need to do is ask themselves the question, “How would a level-headed thinking person respond to my pending decision ?”. And you know what, even after making such reasonable assumptions around stakeholder reaction, your predictions are still likely to be erroneous.
The best that a decision-maker can do is make the best decision possible, given:
a) The facts that are able to be determined at the time.
b) The perceived fit between the predicted outcome of the pending decision and the needs of the stakeholders who the decision-maker represents.
c) The prediction of the extent that the pending decision will benefit at least most of the relevant stakeholders.
d) The likely impact predictions revealed from performing some form of quantitative predictive analysis.
Have some confidence, and ask yourself the question “what is the risk/ what are the implications of me making no decision at all ?”. Often the cost of failing to make any sort of decision is greater than any consequence of making a firm decision.