Research & Sources Leadership & Decision-Making
Leave your car at a parking meter and walk away. The car is not moving, not doing anything, not going anywhere. But the meter is ticking, and every hour it costs a little more. Postponed decisions work the same way. They look like nothing is happening. In reality, the meter is running.
“Let’s decide next month”
Every company has a list of decisions that keep getting moved. Should we hire that second salesperson? Should we drop the product that barely makes money? Should we have the difficult talk with the partner who is not delivering? Each time, there is a good reason to wait: more data, a better moment, a busy quarter.
Waiting feels safe, because it avoids the risk of being wrong. But it has its own costs, and they are usually bigger than they look.
The costs nobody writes down
The cost of time. If hiring a salesperson would bring in new clients, every month of delay is a month of lost sales. The decision might be the same in six months. The revenue lost in between is gone.
The cost of uncertainty in the team. When people know a decision is pending, they hold back. Projects wait. Good people wonder whether there is a future for them. Some leave.
The cost of attention. Open decisions do not stay quietly in a drawer. Psychologists E. J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister found that unfinished goals keep pulling at our attention and interfere with other tasks, and that making a concrete plan for them reduces that pull.1 Every open decision is a small weight you carry into every other meeting.
The cost of the worse option. Delay is a decision too. If you do not decide, the default happens, and the default is rarely the best option.
Speed and quality are not enemies
Many leaders believe that faster decisions must be worse decisions. McKinsey’s survey of more than 1,200 managers found the opposite pattern: organisations that made decisions quickly also tended to make them well, and slow decision making was often a sign of a poor process rather than careful thinking.2
The secret is not to rush. It is to have a clear way of deciding, so decisions do not wait for courage or for a free afternoon.
How to stop the meter
Give every decision a date. “We will decide by the 15th, with the information we have by then.” A deadline turns a vague worry into a task.
Ask what you really need to know. Often one or two facts would settle the question. Get those, not a perfect picture.
Separate reversible from irreversible decisions. Most decisions can be undone or adjusted. Those deserve speed. Only the few truly irreversible ones deserve long deliberation.
Name the cost of waiting. Write it down: what does each month of delay cost us? Seeing the number changes the conversation.
What this means for you this week
- List every decision you have postponed more than twice.
- Estimate the monthly cost of waiting for the biggest one.
- Give each decision a date and put it in your calendar.
- Decide one reversible decision today.
The car is not going anywhere. But the meter does not care.
Sources
- Masicampo, E. J. & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667-683. doi.orgUnfinished goals keep pulling at our attention; making a specific plan for them reduces that effect.
- McKinsey & Company (2019). Decision making in the age of urgency. mckinsey.comSurvey of 1,259 managers: only 20 percent say their organisation excels at decision making, and most say much of their decision time is used ineffectively.
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