The inability to make decisions is considered a characteristic of anxiety inducing behaviour. I will let you Google the research papers on this for yourself rather than badly Manasplain them.
People think that they will make the wrong decision or even worse — a one-way door decision. That is a decision that is hard to reverse once you have committed to it. There are ways to deal with these kinds of paralysing situations, like learning to make two-way door decisions that allow you to back out of the initial decision quickly or with little cost paid.
The problem is that is not always possible if your information at the time is limited by:
- Incomplete Analysis: Not fully understanding the requirements for the decision;
- High System Complexity: Dealing with complex systems that can not be distilled down in to a quick answer to aid decision making; or
- High Volatility of the situation: Possible big differences between what you know at the time of making the decision and when the decision comes to fruition.
The basic idea behind Delayed Decision Making and a lot of slow thinking is taking time to consider the question being asked and to have enough information at the time to make that decision.
There is no such thing as having all the data for making the right decision.
Analysis paralysis is always a concern in not being immediately decisive but so is making a decision quickly just for the sake of it.
Experts have that Blink decision making ability that lets years of knowledge help them circumvent the consciousness of thinking through a problem but even that should not always be trusted. In fact, experts should regularly challenge their own thought process to make sure their decisions are sound and based in current knowledge and consider the context.
Just because you were right the last ten times does not mean you are right this time. Assuming that is dangerous and counter to good decision making because fast decisions are not necessarily evaluated against other options.
This is where delaying a decision until you feel more comfortable with the path forward is OK. Most of the time, you will never feel totally comfortable with it and that is a good state. Complete comfort again should be challenged.
Firstly, set yourself a fail safe point. A moment in time when the decision has to be made or everything will be delayed or start to cascade out of control. That is your last point to choose what you will do.
Secondly, think through all the options you have now and any that come up between now and the fail safe point. Talk to others. Hear them out. Allow yourself to consider things that you would never have considered when this first came up. The more out of left field, the better. Even if the suggestion is bad, it can open up a new direction in thinking. Discuss.
Thirdly, choose one path forward and with it, plan a rollback plan or contingency in case it doesn’t work. That contingency can be 1) Undoing it all with little negative effect; 2) Fixing whatever small parts have gone wrong and changing tack to correct your path; or 3) Accepting the choice was wrong and moving on anyway. Yes, accepting your current state and starting to plan again can be a backup plan.
But the key point is allowing that key choice or decision to be made as close to the fail safe point as possible. Push it out for as long as you can.
It may feel counterintuitive because we are told being decisive is good but nothing is 100% perfect. Some days, you just have to grab a coffee, exhale and think a little longer.
Damana Madden 