I was thinking that often in business I have seen people who make quick bad decisions or no decisions at all. I think there is some middle ground here.
The people who make quick bad decisions are easy to understand. They don’t want to research or find out details, and they make decisions based on their gut/intuition/feeling and feel confident about it. On the other hand, are people who like to understand the decision, and list the pros/cons, and then they get so overwhelmed with information they can’t make a decision. I don’t think either is helpful.
I have mostly worked with people who made both of these types of decisions. Rarely did someone do research and then make a decision quickly. Often I was asked to research and list the pros/cons and then meet the business requirements and then make recommendations. I like researching so for me, so I tend to always want to dig into the details before making a decision. However there are times when you have to make a decision, and you don’t have all the facts but if you don’t make the decision immediately it will have a negative consequence.
I already shared the story of the failing server. I have worked with many businesses that had financial issues and lost market share. They made decisions on every basis but a factual one. I couldn’t understand it. Why try to fight reality instead of working with it? For example, one business was looking to cut costs, and so I came up with 20 ideas that would save money for the business. They were both technical, managerial, and administrative. Not only was I not thanked for coming up with the ideas, but none of them were also implemented. Any of those ideas could have saved lots of money and I detailed that in my report. I even offered to manage the process. Not a peep. The company continued to lay people off instead.
Many times decision-makers think they know the best about how to run their business. I would submit that if your business is failing, crowdsourcing the employee’s ideas has turned many business challenges around. If they want to fail that is their business, I just find it odd.