I recently posted on the Hidden Cost of Indecision from a personal perspective. We can easily get paralyzed into deferring decisions, assuming that the decision will get easier to make in the future. But it rarely does, and in the interim we pay a deep personal price. Each decision gets heavier, the risks seem greater, and the fear of what other people will think if we make the wrong decision grows larger. We can start to rationalize to others why we haven’t made the decision while we inwardly curse ourselves because we are so indecisive. In addition to the hidden personal cost of indecision, there is a hidden organizational cost. When an organization has trouble making decisions, it engenders a culture of inaction and the organization becomes very comfortable with the status quo. As leaders, this is something we desperately need to prevent.
When an organization starts to struggle with decision making, they develop an inertia, a resistance to change the direction in which they are going, even if that direction is filled with inefficiencies and ineffectiveness. The organization continues to make the same mistakes and it requires greater energy to change. I have seen organizations spend more energy resisting change under the premise that new leadership will eventually come and the desire to change will vanish. Unfortunately, in this state, creativity is lost, urgency is surrendered, and the desire to improve is forever abandoned. Most organizations lose their ability to even detect that they are suffering from this condition. Don’t allow this to happen to your organization. Collaboratively make decisions and then work as a team to make the action plan succeed. Your organization will thrive on this type of culture and you will be teaching the next generation how to be successful.
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