In our digital economy, high value is placed on the ability for companies to be agile—to move quickly and decisively against any number of market disruptors, new innovations or unforeseen challenges (pandemic, anyone?). Despite this heavy demand on organizations to move quickly, analysis paralysis continues to plague even the most innovative disruptors.
As a business owner myself, I get it. Making decisions—especially when those decisions come with significant investment and an unproven ROI—can be incredibly challenging. Even setting aside financial risk, there are still potential risks to brand and reputation, still the time required to execute on the decision and still the necessary buy-in from key stakeholders. When you stack that up against the actions you must take every day just to keep the proverbial lights on, it’s easy to see why decision-making—even seemingly small, inconsequential choices—can be so crippling.
Failure to decide can be deciding to fail
One example I witnessed first hand was from a long-time client who wanted a digital advertising campaign for their business, one that—once signed off—would take about 90 days to create before putting it into play. Despite sending a detailed estimate, assets request and kickoff dates on time, the request to begin sat for over a year without an approval or even review from the client. It wasn’t that the ad campaign was overly expensive, or that our work with this client was unproven—in fact, we had many successful projects with them to this point. It was simply that the client had prioritized non-marketing activities and didn’t want to make a final decision on this campaign until every other element was in place.
The impact of waiting so long is, admittedly, hard to measure. What we do know is that in those 12 months the client could have reached new potential customers or helped grow their business into new regions. The campaign, and the data that would have accompanied it, could have proven a jumping off point for new business decisions or further marketing to specific demographics. Unfortunately, the campaign was not able to deliver on any of those things. It represented a year of standing still and a year of missed opportunity that compounded over time—opportunities for growth, to beat the competition and to win trust with customers.
These kinds of indecisions are not uncommon within an organization, and the occasional project that falls by the wayside may rarely have a monumental impact. Over time however, moments where decisions aren’t made can become significant barriers to growth.
Too little information and too much
Colin Powell, 4-star general and former U.S. Secretary of State, understood the consequence of analysis paralysis and developed his own 40/70 rule.
He believed that you should never make a decision with less than 40% of the required information, because the likelihood of failure was too high. Conversely, he believed that having more than 70% of the information necessary meant you had waited too long to make the decision and the moment of opportunity had passed.
This 40/70 approach can be beneficial no matter your business or the decisions you have to make. Investing in growing your company, hiring new talent, marketing, new product iterations and more all come with a certain level of risk. Sometimes decision making simply requires taking that first step into the unknown and plowing ahead.
Whether you decide or not, a decision has been made
In my own experience building Reed Hill, I’ve had to force myself to carve out time to not only think strategically, but to put plans in motion that will propel growth. I realized that whether I was making a conscious choice or letting a choice stagnate in my mind, either way a decision was being made. This awareness helped me to recognize that I was in control—maybe not of the ultimate outcome, but of the process that would lead us there.
Over the years, it has often meant putting systems in place or investing in new opportunities before the use case had been finally realized. It involved risk, but more often than not it has resulted in reward. Like Ray Kinsella taught us in Field of Dreams, “if you build it, he will come.” In much the same way in business, “if you decide, you can achieve.”
Start by taking stock of what your organization needs and why, then make the commitment to simply make decisions and start executing against them. Chances are, you’ll find much greater success and growth from making a choice—even from the occasional miscalculation—than you will if you stay stuck in the never-ending loop of a wait and see mindset.
