Watching for the Off Ramps

I served in Iraq with the US military during 2004-2005 and had the opportunity to be there during their first election and participate in the planning to make sure it went off as safely as possible. That planning went pretty slowly, as it was hard to get the Iraqis to make decisions; instead, they wanted to talk about things a lot, then go off and consider them, then have another meeting about the same thing, and so on and so on. A British Army colonel with whom I worked made a comment that has stuck with me, and that has led me to move forward on decisions when I have felt like we are stuck.

As we had trouble getting decisions made, this colonel said “Imagine you are driving down a highway and you’re passing different off ramps. As you pass each one, that exit is no longer an option. Time is like that highway; the longer you go on, the fewer options you have. If you have a security plan that will take three weeks to implement, and you wait until two weeks before the event, well, that three week plan is not an option anymore.” Letting time go by without making a decision reduces the options available to you, so if you want to have more choices available to you, you need to be willing to make a decision sooner rather than later.

This is just as true for you and your employees as it was for us in Iraq. If you are not willing to make a decision, you end up reducing your options as time goes by. In a sense, failing to make a decision sort of helps make the final decision by reducing your choices, but that may not be the kind of help you want since it might mean that some really good ideas are no longer possible. Don’t take forever to consider decisions; instead, gather information and think through your options quickly rather than putting off a difficult choice.

None of this is meant to suggest to say you should rush into a decision without thinking carefully about it; the idea that “doing something good now is better than doing something great when it’s too late” sometimes leads people to rush into less than optimal choices when in fact they actually had time to do it right. But if you are not willing to make a decision, if you are too afraid of making the wrong one, then some of those great ideas you have will never have a chance to get implemented.

So be willing to make a decision and stand by it. Be confident in your decision making by being thoughtful about collecting information and setting aside time to give it serious thought, so you feel comfortable that you have made the best decision you can within the time you have available.

Try not to drive past too many off ramps, or you might reach the end of the road with no place left to go.