Decision Deadlock: Moving out of Paralysis into Action ASAP

Maartje van Krieken: Hi. Thanks for tuning in today. I'm glad you're back here. The topic I want to talk today in business emergency space is decision paralysis. I think decision making in general is a fabulous subject, but also complex and one that much strands on but particularly being paralyzed in key decisions is a major contributor to chaos. 31% of United States business leaders delay decisions as long as possible. McKinsey has shown that slow decision makers, or slow decision making businesses, are 40% less likely to be top financial performance. Bain and CO did a survey which suggests that over half of all employees feel that time is wasted in their organizations because decisions aren't made. Over half. That's staggering. Harvard showed that high performing businesses make decisions five times faster than their peers. Lack of decision making or decision paralysis stifles innovation, paralyzes digital transformation, and in general, it's something that you can't afford in a or it can ill afford in a fast moving environment, fast paced environment, and so yeah, key topic to address, I also really want to emphasis its decision paralysis is very normal. It's very human, it's very common, and it's driven by lots of factors. So yes, you can do something about it, but don't go all hard on yourself for actually being in those situations, because the things that drive decision paralysis in itself can be a little bit chaotic or a nested suite of causes, things that typically contributed is fear, Fear for making the wrong decision. Fear around outcomes overwhelm simply just not having the spare capacity to clearly think through things. Often it's also around unclear objectives, so not being clear enough where we're trying to go, and hence how the trade offs around the decision matter, or maybe the stakes are just simply so high that that then itself feeds, again, a sense of overwhelm around making the decision. I often also see decision paralysis if there is a large variation in stakeholders and their needs and wants, or if there's been a recent change. So if you've just got a new investor or financial partner, or particularly somebody with purse strings in their hand involved in your initiatives, who has some requirements attached to those purse strings, then that typically can throw a bit of a curve ball in the decision making.

There's also analysis paralysis, more data, finding out more information, and feeling that it all matters. In apps, you may have past experiences or somebody in else involved in decision making process may have past experiences, negative around the subject that feeds to wanting to be absolutely sure. You may have consciously or subconsciously, lack of confidence in the abilities of your team and your organization around either or all of the options or the path forward. In general, you might be over consumed by things that need attention today, and hence it's more long term decisions that become paralyzed and don't get taken and there's typically also emotional attachment to stage scroll or to some of the options more so than others, and that may differentiate between the people around the decision making table factoring in. So yeah, if you listen to that laundry list of factors and there is more. It's typically compounded. And there's not, typically, not one really specific thing that you can pinpoint. Well, if we resolve this fear, or if I, if I just don't think about my past experiences, then necessarily the decision will may be made, right? There's typically a few things. And so unless you actually take the time to detangle things a little bit you're not magically taking a step out of decision paralysis. There are, however, very practical things to not necessarily look back at why it's not been made yet, but to actually guide your thinking and start making those decisions. So let's assume, for the purposes of this podcast episode, that you are stuck on one specific decision, or that there is a major one that needs to happen, and that we can do these sequential so talking about one major, integrated decision that needs making and hasn't been made, the first thing i. Would ask you, is to go back and look at the definition of your decision. So what is the decision you're trying to make? Decision paralysis can definitely be fed by unclarity on what it is you're trying to decide, or it being too defined, too big, not having clear boundaries, or very subjectively, so yeah, what is the decision you're trying to make, and what are some of the major boundaries and assumptions that are with it? And if you talk through that with your fellow decision makers or your direct reports or your team, is there actually clarity around it, or does it immediately lead to discussion and questions, and if it does, then you need to get to alignment on some of those major factors that become a discussion point, right? Maybe there is clarity on what the decision is that you're trying to make, but then, typically, the next thing that needs attention is quantification. Sometimes in decision making, there is a lot of talk about the options, and sometimes some work on maturing the different options to choose between. However, what's often lacking is true qualification that makes it different, or a quantification. So if I'm trying to make a decision on a new market segment or going out with a new product, then you typically one solution is the status quo.

One solution is typically a slightly extended or different version, like a little step out, a more limited innovation, and there's maybe a far out innovation, and maybe there is a another variation that goes to a slightly different market. What if you look at your options, you will see probably that they're not equally defined. They don't have an equal level of definition. If things don't have a somewhat equal level of definition, then they're not real choices, and the difference in definition might sit also in very different things. So one might have a mentally a huge risk profile attached, whilst the other one is just generally a market unknown because you can't look that far in the future. And there might be another one where you have somewhat unclarity on whether your suppliers can do it or what the cost involved are. And so my question to you would be, if you are incision paralysis, and you have your options in front of you on the table, what is it that you can do? What is it that you can find out today that will actually help you put more meat to the don't bone on these options that will give you more clarity that instead of talking about it at the same level you are today, if you would come back in two days or a week or a month from now, with that information would actually lead to a different level of discussion and potentially the ability to make a decision and choose, which leads me to the next topic, which is data overload. Typically, decision paralysis is also driven by having a lot of data and it not being structured or not all being helpful. Remember, all the how algorithms work is, in general, a reflection of how your brain works. Once you found an argument in favor or against a certain solution that becomes a bit of a filter, and everything you see after will feed along the same lights and seeing a lot of information on the same topic works a bit the same way as the loudest voice in the room. It becomes the loudest voice in the room. That's what you remember. That's what you hear. But that's, of course, not necessarily factual or truly the biggest factor. So all the information that you're dragging into the conversation, some of it probably needs to go out. You might need more or better or different information to support your quantification, but then please go out and find the level of information and as factual as possible that will make a material difference in your decision, right? If you're struggling with the cost quantification around an issue or supplier capability, then maybe I need to go out and find at least three reputable suppliers who could reliably provide me these parts or these pieces, or do that piece of work on my you know, produce those parts for me. And if I find four great but I don't need to find 12, because if in a limited time frame, you find three really good ones, then yes, there's probably more out there. So your question of, is this doable? Is answered, right? And at some point, war just becomes war, but will not lead to a different decision, and it's just more work. And so what is the information that you need to actually better quantify or to make a material difference in what you would choosethen, and creates a little bit of an apples to apples level. Lot of definition on your opportunities, right? And is all your data in the operational space, but none of it is around the end of life of a piece of equipment, or you're looking at new market segments. And you have a lot of information about what you could make, but you don't actually have information about what the market wants, or enough trend information, then that's still a limited decision, right? So you want to look a little bit at the life cycle of the project, of the process. And typically you see that on some opportunities, you have a lot on one side, or others, you have more on the other side. And the fact that getting that more to a comparable level was maybe difficult, and so it didn't get done. You're still going to need some numbers to get you to the point where you feel comfortable of making the decision.

So yeah, maybe an expert, or maybe it's about talking through the logic, which is also the next step I would go through, if you feel like you have the data and it's bona fide stuff, but you're still stuck, then you need to talk somebody through the logic. So sit down with somebody who has enough background understanding and capacity to understand where this fits in your business, so that they can listen to you talk through it and point out the holes in your logic, right? I think we can all think of somebody like that. And if you're a smaller organization, that might be just a peer or a friend who's willing to do that for you. Within your organizations, there might be a peer in another business line who is willing to sit down with you, and maybe it's more than more than one person, but just talk through saying this decision I'm trying to make. These are my alternatives. This is what I found. And hence I'm reaching these conclusions. Because if you've been working at topic for a long time, it's sometimes hard to see the gaps in your reasoning or the inconsistencies. So I'm talking about the simple stuff of somebody else with fresh ears being able to point out, saying, Hey, you started telling me this, and then everything after that you told me was more around this. So how are both of these things true? And they might be both true, but then that forces you to kind of say, well, my thinking was that if I connected up this way, they're both true, and that typically leads to some fresh insights on where you might have gaps on what you have, which is why you can't make the decision. All of these steps are part of a typical decision framework, and so yeah, if you're if you urgently make a decision, you can simply walk through these steps, and you should be getting quite far, or all the way. Ultimately, I think every business benefits from a certain level of decision hygiene. And with decision hygiene is that, I mean that you have clarity on who makes decisions, the big decisions, when they are made, where they are made, what's kind of the the information, or the level of definition that needs to go in there, so that you also can create a bit of corporate memory, right? That if you five years or four years down the lane is like we talked about this, then we made this decision, or we didn't make a decision, and you can go back and find that information, or when you need to communicate decisions to a new party three months after it was made, that you can go back and make sure that you all the pertinent parts are carried forward to that new party, so that they can use it and do their job, and that it also keeps linking. Yeah, and having decision hygiene is also really important, because there is usually a lot of interdependency between major decisions made, and there is choices made in trade offs, and that then links also back to how you manage the strategic risk in your business. So all of this can be called by deploying some kind of decision frameworks. And there is lots out there. The one that I personally favor is the Stanford model, the decision quality model, because it's, I think, very easily deployable. It lends itself to a decent amount of back of the envelope work. And hence, if you're a business that already has a lot of systems, then I think you can say,

Okay, what that decision frameworks is telling me to do, or to have I already have in this system somewhat or in that system. And so you can is one that's kind of easily deployable by building on what you already have. There are also all sorts of other more, yeah, more or less rigid frameworks out there that tell you to walk through steps in more specific ways, using metrics or data and spreadsheets and models. Ultimately, there is. It's a tool, but I think it's a very useful tool, because having a decision framework forces you to take stuff out of your head and onto paper, and in doing so, not alone, but with a team, and facilitates the discussions. It highlights where there's misalignment or different interpretations of definitions. It highlights. It's where you might be missing pieces of the puzzle, or where your biases might be taking over, or all the other barriers to decision making, right around fear and stakeholder input data, not having data, too much data and capacity capability, all of that. So yes, long story short, those tips to start with the level of definition and review that, what's decision you're trying to make. Where are you on the quantification of the different options, and is that at the level playing field? Then what can you do to make that a put more meat to the bone and definition in and look at the data you carry. Throw away the stuff that's not helpful in this particular decision, look for the stuff that's factual as objective as possible. What insight makes a material difference. So work things out to the order of magnitude. You need to make a decision, and then talk through the logic. Ultimately, decision frameworks will also give you these steps in different orders. And to me, that would be the end goal. It's very useful to bring in fresh ears and eyes if you are struggling with decision making. That can definitely be a very temporary support, but it will speed up this process so quickly, somebody who facilitates this for you will be much faster than you trying to do that with the same team that that kind of was involved in ultimately getting to this point, because some of that luggage, or baggage in energy and add in and position and history with the subject gets carried into the room, and a facilitator can help ease that out, even if you all get along fabulously. So if you want to do this fast, get some facilitation, if you would like, somehow implementing a decision framework of some kind in your organization. Please reach out again. It's not a it doesn't have to be a huge piece of work, but it will be one of the most valuable things you do. So don't stay stuck in decision paralysis. Don't ponder too hard on the how you got there, but start taking walking through the steps to move out that will definitely help.

So thanks for tuning in today, and I'm wishing you a swift recovery from your decision paralysis, looking forward to seeing you here back next week, bye.