Decision making

What it means

Decision making is choosing well when you do not have all the facts. You will rarely have perfect information, so the skill is knowing how much to gather and how fast to move.

A useful rule is to sort decisions by how hard they are to undo. If you can reverse a choice easily, decide quickly and learn. If it is costly or permanent, slow down, ask people, and check your assumptions.

Why it matters

Owners lose a lot of time on decisions in two ways. They agonise over small things like a vendor for stationery, or they rush big things like a large hire or a loan. Either way the business pays. A clear way of deciding keeps you moving on small matters and careful on the ones that can hurt you.

• Your team stops waiting on you for small approvals.
• Big decisions get proper thought, not a late-night guess.
• You learn from outcomes, because you wrote down why you chose.

How to use it

1. For each decision, ask: if I am wrong, can I undo it cheaply? If yes, decide within a day.
2. For hard-to-undo decisions, write the options, the worst case for each, and what you do not know yet.
3. Ask two people who disagree with you for their view, and listen without defending.
4. Set a deadline, because waiting also has a cost.
5. Record the decision and your reason in one line. Check it again in three months.

Common mistakes

• Treating every decision as equally serious.
• Waiting for certainty that will never come.
• Deciding alone on big matters because asking feels weak.
• Never reviewing past decisions, so the same errors repeat.

Try this today