Do you Wait for Perfect Information to Make a Decision?

author: Lee Buttolph

Seth Godin wrote a great blog about Buzzer Management.  The gist is that it is okay to sometimes make decisions before you know the correct course of action.  If you are always waiting til you know everything before making that decision someone will beat you to the punch.

Many owners have little idea where they want to go and they are deathly scared to make a decision on the direction it should go in.  I highly recommend taking Seth Godin’s advice.  Press the buzzer even though you have no idea exactly where you want to go.  Your employees need, nay demand, that you tell them WHY they come into work everyday.

The sceptical owner’s response, “I’m waiting till I know what I want.  I don’t want to give up any flexibility in my decision making process.”

To take the buzzer analogy to the next level, think of how Jeopardy works.  Most contestants pick a category and start at the bottom $100 level and work their way up in value and difficulty to $1000 as they understand the nature of the questions.

Think of your business decisions the same way.  Start with the easy decisions first.  What industry does your company work in?  Let the easy decisions settle in then take on a harder list of questions?

    - What is your target market?

    - What is the culture of this company?

    - Are we a luxury brand or a low cost supplier?

    - What locations will we sell from?

Your employees will become better at their job as you answer these questions for them.  They will be able to answer questions on their own because you have set the direction for them to follow.  Remember, the cost of not answering them far outweighs the cost of not getting the answer 100% correct (because you answered too quickly).