You’ve come up with ideas, narrowed down your options, and looked at the available data. You’ve asked all the right questions to guide your choice. And yet, for some reason, you just can’t pull the trigger on a decision. What’s the hold up?
When to Stop Deliberating and Just Make a Decision
Waiting too long only sets everyone back.
July 09, 2019
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Summary.
Waiting too long to make decisions can slow businesses down, frustrate employees, and mean missing critical opportunities. When should you just make the decision versus gathering more data or cogitating on it longer?
In order to decide when your choice needs to be made, consider a few factors. First, consider the decision’s importance. Choices of little consequence should not take very long. For more important decisions, spend the extra time to either reflect or gather and analyze data. Then, determine how often the same decision will be made. If the decision is one that’s made often, it may be worth developing an analytical approach. These approaches may take time up-front, but they will reduce the time for such decisions in the future. Next, look into buying an option, which can speed up the process and offer a learning opportunity. Finally, put a clock on your decision by assign a deadline by which it needs to be made.