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| "Waiting often brings new ideas and solutions to the table when considering a problem in the decision making process." |
Decision making - “One guiding Principal
that Rules them All “ ( Lord of the Rings nod there is you didn’t get it). I don’t have 8 steps to being a more
effective leader, or 10 tips to becoming more successful – I use just one
simple idea in my decision making. Perhaps a little short sighted you might
say, even a little simplistic – but frankly this strategy has proven to be a
life saver and I am going to share it with you and you don’t even have to
attend a workshop, arrange for a free consultation or visit my website to get
this info!
After all that…the idea is pretty simple –
wait, just wait longer to make your decision. People are driven to make
decisions sooner than necessary most of the time. In this fast paced and hectic
business world there is a need to get things done now – we are driven by
constant communication, short work cycles, management demands and competing
special interest groups to make immediate decisions.
In many ways we have gradually contributed
greatly to the need to make decisions quickly for gen x and now gen y decision
makers because of technology and the
rise of more immediate communication - but we haven’t provided the mentoring and
insight necessary to understand the anatomy of decision making.
Scale is an important decisions when
applying the wait and see approach to decision making. Clearly you can’t wait
for weeks when a decision has to be made by tomorrow morning. I use a simple
understanding of the scale of decision making to inform the decision making
process. If the decision is considered an immediate demand, i.e., in the next
few minutes, hours or days, decisions if properly considered may take hours,
days or weeks given the same scale of decision making.
Of course the all-important question, why
wait? Waiting often brings new ideas and
solutions to the table when considering a problem in the decision making
process. Additionally, the loudest and most pressing solution is not always the
best path – often we need time and space to reflect on a decision and its implications.
And, of course many problems that demand immediate decision making often
resolve themselves given time; sometimes through innovation and other times
through the thoughtful solutions from team members and subordinates.
I am sorry I can’t think of a more common
analogy for the thought process around waiting to make a decision but the idea
of baseball, and the batter waiting
patiently in his batter’s box as a pitch arrives makes sense to me. In that moment
the batter must make an immediate decision. As decisions become more meaningful
late in games or important playoff situations batters are often said to wait on
the pitch longer, allowing it to travel further. They may not hit it as hard
but they are less likely to make an out. The batter stands back and tries to
create more space to give him or herself more time to decide to make contact or
not. This additional time in the
batter’s box makes the difference between average and great decision making.
Don’t get me wrong, you can still make
quick decisions and be successful, but this demands a greater degree of skill,
in my opinion, often demanding considerable experience. Waiting and taking more
time to make a thoughtful decision allows you to weigh more factors and consider
alternatives that are difficult to fathom in the short term.
