Consensus Overload

  Decision Making   Leadership   ProjectsAtWork  

You don’t always have the luxury of getting everyone’s input on decisions. Often, you’ve got to make a decision quickly or risk losing the opportunity altogether. Here are seven principles for making thoughtful, yet timely decisions without getting sidetracked by consensus overload.

Often, the biggest roadblock to execution at companies is consensus. Leaders spend valuable time and money trying to get everyone on board with a decision, and end up stalled in a state of extended debate — a.k.a. analysis paralysis. But in today’s business environment, it’s those who can make speedy (yet thoughtful) decisions — sometimes in hours, days, and weeks instead of months — who not only survive, but excel.

It’s important for leaders to make well-informed, wise decisions, but when time is of the essence, it’s also crucial to know when it’s time to stop talking and start acting. It’s this decision-making responsibility and the pressure that comes with it that causes leaders to constantly go to their teams for input. Unfortunately, doing so leads to analysis paralysis or plain old-fashioned inertia.

This stalled state is like treading water. You’re in the middle of a beautiful lake. You’re doing fine until exhaustion sets in, and then you begin to sink like a rock. When you spend too much time trying to build …

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