Ninety-five percent of business decisions can be undone, and a full reversal is almost never necessary. Usually, our informed intuition is directionally correct, and as we learn we can course-correct along the way.
This is a well known tenet in leadership literature yet it is powerful for leaders to digest and practice, especially if the team is driving toward big goals. The bigger, hairier, more audacious the goal, the more important it becomes to make decisions quickly.
An example: Early in my career, I used to wait until I was 80-90% sure of my decision before putting the team into motion. I was trained as an engineer and I craved the assurance of knowing I was making the right decision based on sufficient data. But the team needed sponsorship far before I could get that level of confidence. Left to their own, they made individual choices that caused confusion, created conflict, and resulted in slower performance. This actually became more of a headache to manage than if I’d made a 50% confident decision in the first place, then adjusted as we went.
Certainly, some decisions cannot be easily reversed. Selecting the right ERP system requires much more input and research than deciding how and when to introduce a process change, even a major one.
But most decisions can be tweaked and course-corrected if they are moving in the general right direction. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to quell your fears, cover your @$$, or flailing due to ambiguity, because you’re probably hurting the team more than you realize.
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