How Long Do You Have To Live With That Decision?
Jeff Gothelf
Teaching executives to simplify prioritization and decision-making by putting the customer first.
Many of the teams I work with struggle to make decisions. Whether it’s which designs to implement, which feature to prioritize or which process to use they spend hours debating, voting, building consensus while assessing all the various risks involved with that decision. There’s a finality to these conversations. This is it. Once we make this decision we’re done with this part of the process and moving forward. Because of this the decision-making process drags on and on.?
But what if we reframed each decision a team has to make with this question:?How long do you have to live with that decision?
If we’re working in short cycles (yes, sprints) then the reality is that we only have to live with each decision for as long as that cycle lasts. In fact, that’s the power of agility. Being agile means working in short cycles and then using these cycles to learn whether or not what we implemented — be it feature or new way of working — meets our and our customers’ expectations. If it doesn’t, we don’t have to maintain it any further.
We use retrospectives to review how well our work met our expectations. If it doesn’t we change it (or remove it). Making changes based on evidence is the definition of agility and short cycles enable that.?
The next time your team is struggling to move forward on a decision, ask yourselves — how long do we have to live with this decision?
-Jeff
Teaching executives to simplify prioritization and decision-making by putting the customer first.
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Business Transformation Leader | Bridging: Strategy & Operations; Technical & Business | Lean Six Sigma Black Belt | Making Complex Change Simple Through People-Centric Solutions | Sub-Transformational Change | MBA, FCMI
3 年The behavioural phycologist, Dan Ariely, had a good example of how this works in predictably irrational, spending too much time on decisions that are of marginal utility. As Voltaire said, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"
Global Logistics Procurement Manager at Pentagon Freight Services. Memberships: BIFA Surface Group; UK Tea Association; British Coffee Association
3 年Excellent post Jeff. Thank you
Retires Scientist G & Scientist In charge MERADO Ludhiana CSIR / CMERI and Ex Commander (Indian Navy)
3 年Made a solid point , how long we need to live with a decision? that answers how much important it is. short cycle experience accumulates and forms a rising spiral . A good article which made me think
Training Supervisor at HMS Mfg. Co.
3 年This is exactly why it is called "continuous improvement": seldom are we focused on a static target; some aspect of the situation always requires a dynamic view of the scope of the system. And yes, we must learn how to make decisions based off of the success or failure of our past decisions. Good insights Jeff!