Decide

Joe House
May 01, 2023

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice"

-Rush, Freewill, 1980

Decide and act or wait until indecision does it for us. As leaders, we must choose the first. Great leaders are great decision makers. Great decisions, are not always perfect, but are always completed. The focus of this newsletter will be making reasonable decisions, with defined & communicated logic, at the appropriate pace.

DECIDE

TO CUT OFF: The word decide emerges from the early Latin word of decido; de = down from, caedo = cut, to cut off. Making a decision cuts off other options. This edition of Relentless Pursuit will focus on establishing a process to make decisions so that decisions > principles for decision making > better decisions.

EVALUATE: Looking for a system to evaluate a decision you need to make? Check out Jocko's system from Episode 371, Min 5-25.

What is the return? (Outcome you are pursuing)
What is the investment? (Time, $, opportunity cost)
What is the risk of failure?

This system applies well on simple decisions (type of workout to do), personal decisions (parenting), and business decision (market to enter). Listen in to hear many examples of the system in use!

PACE: Josh Schultz, president of CaneKast, summarizes the criticality of pace in his SMB Ops Newsletter titled Coaching to Action. The principles of rapid decision making are:

Lower the bar of decision perfection by asking questions; "What is an 80% solution that we can start right now?"
Push to action by using leading questions that drive to action; "Can you create the solution right now and share it in this meeting?"
Keep it going by creating personal accountability, allowing team members to respond to "Now that you have it started, and we've decided to keep going, when will you have it completed?"
Add accountability; make sure the ONE owner knows the responsibility is theirs. Try closing with "can I count on you for this?"

Josh and the CaneKast team have made incredible progress rolling up foundries across the USA in a short period of time. The pace they decide, execute, and operate is a critical piece of their foundation for success!

ITERATE: When faced with big decisions, limited information, and dynamic situations use this "cheat code" from Jocko Willink; Iterate. Rather than tackle the entire decision at once, break it into a series of small decisions and keep moving. An iterative decision making process allows you to move in the direction of your goal, gather further information along the way by validating prior decisions, and adapt to the changing situation around you. Check out this example;

Big Decision: Hire new, unproven, software developer at lower cost OR continue development with existing partner at higher price and longer agreement term to complete critical project

Decision 1: Segment project scope into multiple phases and ask each developer to propose in phases
Decision 2: Award phase 1, 15% of total scope, to new developer and evaluate work
Decision 3: Award phase 2, major build of project
Decision 4: Terminate existing developer and engage new developer for maintenance

By breaking the "big decision" into 4 sections, our business was able to secure a solid outcome at reduced cost and duration. This iterative process never changed our direction, but notably reduced risk along the path to best outcome.

TIP

Working on something new, creating a process, or fixing a problem? Try this method:

Decide: Decide what needs to be done
Do: Do the work yourself for as long as you need to, but as short as possible, in order to understand how it really works
Document: Turn your experience doing the task into a work instruction for others
Delegate: Once the direction is clear (decide), you've demonstrated it can be done (do), and you've assembled a process to replicate (document), delegate the activity as fast as possible. Invest your extra time in the next activity only you can do, then repeat the process!
*NOTE; if you can automate instead of delegate, even better!

Lead | Produce | Pursue

Joe House