Delay Is Itself a Decision
One of the difficulties of executive decision-making is recognising when additional time will improve a decision and when it will merely delay it.
Waiting is not necessarily a weakness. There are circumstances in which the sensible response is to create time, gather additional information, challenge assumptions and develop a better understanding of the situation before committing to action.
Indeed, under pressure, deliberately creating time can be one of the most effective things a leader can do.
Equally, there comes a point at which further analysis adds little to the quality of the eventual decision. More information becomes desirable rather than necessary, additional meetings repeat arguments already understood and the search for greater certainty begins to postpone action rather than improve judgement.
The distinction matters because time does not stand still while we decide.
Circumstances continue to change. Risks develop. Costs accumulate. Competitors act. People respond. Opportunities appear and disappear. Options available today may not remain available tomorrow.
Choosing not to decide does not suspend any of these things.
Pressure and performance
Pressure also affects our ability to think.
The Yerkes-Dodson Stress-Arousal and Performance Relationship, illustrated in Figure 3.1, provides a useful representation of what happens.
A moderate level of pressure is often beneficial. It sharpens attention, increases focus and encourages action. Most people will recognise situations in which a demanding deadline or difficult challenge has brought out some of their best performance.
However, that relationship has limits.
Beyond a certain point, additional pressure begins to produce the opposite effect. Situational awareness narrows, information processing becomes less effective, cognitive flexibility reduces and decision quality starts to decline.
If pressure continues to increase, performance can deteriorate rapidly.
This creates an important paradox for executive decision-making.
Delaying a decision in the hope of achieving greater certainty can allow the situation itself to deteriorate whilst simultaneously increasing the pressure upon those responsible for dealing with it.
Eventually, the same decision may still have to be made, but with fewer options, less time and reduced cognitive capacity.
Creating time is different from delaying
This does not mean that decisions should simply be made more quickly.
Executive Decision Acceleration is not about speed for its own sake.
Speed without judgement merely accelerates failure, whilst exhaustive analysis that arrives too late rarely creates value.
The objective is to use the available time intelligently.
Sometimes that means deliberately slowing the immediate situation down. Stabilising events, reducing unnecessary workload, clarifying what matters and creating sufficient capacity to think can materially improve the quality of the eventual decision.
This is very different from simply postponing it.
Creating time has a purpose. It improves the conditions in which judgement takes place.
Delay consumes time without producing a corresponding improvement in understanding or decision quality.
Recognising the difference is an important leadership capability.
When is enough, enough?
Perfect information will rarely be available.
There will almost always be another question that could be asked, another analysis that could be undertaken or another opinion that could be sought.
The more useful question is whether obtaining it is reasonably likely to change the decision.
If it is, further investigation may be entirely justified.
If it is not, continuing to seek information may simply be delaying the point at which somebody has to exercise judgement.
Uncertainty cannot be eliminated entirely. At some point, if there is a reasonable basis upon which to make the decision, it is necessary to decide, act and learn.
That does not guarantee that the decision will prove to be correct. No methodology can do that.
It does mean recognising that inaction has consequences too.
Choosing not to decide does not suspend those consequences.
Delay is itself a decision.
For further exploration of this topic, see Chapter 3 – Time Compression – in Executive Decision Acceleration – Enhancing Judgement Under Pressure – A Field Guide.
Executive Decision Acceleration – Amazon
Barry Eustance
Founder, The Sixsess Consultancy
Author, Executive Decision Acceleration – Enhancing Judgement Under Pressure