Avoid being afraid of quick decisions
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The world around us has sped up exponentially. Whilst you’re still thinking, your competitors - often empowered by artificial intelligence - have already made their decision and raced ahead. What used to take weeks is now done in an evening. If you don’t adapt your thinking to this new pace, you’ll be left behind. Experts at PAnDiKubiz Cyprus have shared advice on how to learn to make decisions quickly and avoid ending up among the losers.
Making the right decision quickly is a skill, not an innate gift, and it can certainly be practised. You need to follow a simple three-step process: quick decision-making, immediate implementation and analysis.
Step One: Making a Quick Decision
Jeff Bezos, founder of the world-famous company Amazon, divides all decisions into two types: irreversible and reversible. The former are like a door that only opens in one direction: once you’ve gone through, there’s no turning back. That’s why you should pause, reflect and weigh things up before making them. But most of our decisions are reversible. If what lies behind the door isn’t what you expected, there’s always the option to go back and choose another door. And there’s absolutely no need to mull over such decisions for weeks on end, as PAnDiKubiz consulting company emphasises.
The key lies in asking yourself a simple question: can I reverse this decision? If so, decide quickly. The cost of delay here is enormous. For example, Kodak was the first to create a prototype digital camera as far back as 1975. However, the management decided not to put the new product into mass production. The company feared that digital technology would destroy its huge and profitable film business. Ultimately, this decision proved to be suicidal. They mistook a reversible experiment for a fatal threat and set about clinging to the past. Whilst Kodak waited for the perfect moment, the entire digital market was quietly taken over by Sony, Nikon, Canon, and later by smartphones. Ultimately, in 2012, Kodak went into administration.
Another example - a positive one - is Instagram. It began in 2009 as a clunky app called Burbn. It was a location-based social network built on HTML5. Users could check in at specific locations, plan meet-ups and post photos. The founders quickly realised that, of all these features, there was really only one thing people actually needed: photos. So they made a bold, yet entirely reversible, decision: to scrap almost all the features and keep only the photos. The logic was simple: if the new version didn’t take off, they could always bring back the old features and continue developing them at their own pace. The developers rebuilt the entire product around a single idea, and in 2010 they launched Instagram. By 2012, Facebook had bought the app for a billion dollars. This is what it means to recognise a reversible decision in time and not delay its implementation, emphasise the consultants at PAnDiKubiz. Incidentally, at the time of the sale, the company employed just 13 people.
Making the right decision quickly is a skill, not an innate gift, and it can certainly be practised. You need to follow a simple three-step process: quick decision-making, immediate implementation and analysis.
Step One: Making a Quick Decision
Jeff Bezos, founder of the world-famous company Amazon, divides all decisions into two types: irreversible and reversible. The former are like a door that only opens in one direction: once you’ve gone through, there’s no turning back. That’s why you should pause, reflect and weigh things up before making them. But most of our decisions are reversible. If what lies behind the door isn’t what you expected, there’s always the option to go back and choose another door. And there’s absolutely no need to mull over such decisions for weeks on end, as PAnDiKubiz consulting company emphasises.
The key lies in asking yourself a simple question: can I reverse this decision? If so, decide quickly. The cost of delay here is enormous. For example, Kodak was the first to create a prototype digital camera as far back as 1975. However, the management decided not to put the new product into mass production. The company feared that digital technology would destroy its huge and profitable film business. Ultimately, this decision proved to be suicidal. They mistook a reversible experiment for a fatal threat and set about clinging to the past. Whilst Kodak waited for the perfect moment, the entire digital market was quietly taken over by Sony, Nikon, Canon, and later by smartphones. Ultimately, in 2012, Kodak went into administration.
Another example - a positive one - is Instagram. It began in 2009 as a clunky app called Burbn. It was a location-based social network built on HTML5. Users could check in at specific locations, plan meet-ups and post photos. The founders quickly realised that, of all these features, there was really only one thing people actually needed: photos. So they made a bold, yet entirely reversible, decision: to scrap almost all the features and keep only the photos. The logic was simple: if the new version didn’t take off, they could always bring back the old features and continue developing them at their own pace. The developers rebuilt the entire product around a single idea, and in 2010 they launched Instagram. By 2012, Facebook had bought the app for a billion dollars. This is what it means to recognise a reversible decision in time and not delay its implementation, emphasise the consultants at PAnDiKubiz. Incidentally, at the time of the sale, the company employed just 13 people.
Step two. Time to act
So, you’ve chosen the door. But how do you recognise the moment when you have enough information and it’s time to act? Jeff Bezos himself formulated a principle according to which most decisions should be made when 70 per cent of the information is available. By the time you have 90 per cent, it’s already too late; by the time you have 100 per cent, circumstances or competitors have made the decision for you.
Don’t worry that there isn’t enough data. Making a quick decision isn’t like reading tea leaves. Gradually, you’ll learn to sense more accurately where the right answer lies, as noted by PAnDiKubiz Cyprus. The more similar situations you’ve already been through, the more accurately you’ll make decisions, even when the picture isn’t complete.
Then another principle comes into play. Parkinson’s Law states: work always tends to take exactly as long as you’ve planned for it. If you set yourself a task for a week, you’ll be fiddling about with it for all 7 days; if you give yourself one day, you’ll get it done in that time. Yes, the result may differ slightly, but, incidentally, not always for the worse. Time constraints prevent you from getting distracted and mobilise your resources.
So, you’ve chosen the door. But how do you recognise the moment when you have enough information and it’s time to act? Jeff Bezos himself formulated a principle according to which most decisions should be made when 70 per cent of the information is available. By the time you have 90 per cent, it’s already too late; by the time you have 100 per cent, circumstances or competitors have made the decision for you.
Don’t worry that there isn’t enough data. Making a quick decision isn’t like reading tea leaves. Gradually, you’ll learn to sense more accurately where the right answer lies, as noted by PAnDiKubiz Cyprus. The more similar situations you’ve already been through, the more accurately you’ll make decisions, even when the picture isn’t complete.
Then another principle comes into play. Parkinson’s Law states: work always tends to take exactly as long as you’ve planned for it. If you set yourself a task for a week, you’ll be fiddling about with it for all 7 days; if you give yourself one day, you’ll get it done in that time. Yes, the result may differ slightly, but, incidentally, not always for the worse. Time constraints prevent you from getting distracted and mobilise your resources.
Step three. Time to analyse
This is a very important step that strengthens your ability to make and implement decisions. Obviously, you need to analyse the outcome resulting from your decisions and actions. This stage must not be skipped. You should pause and ask yourself honestly: ‘What worked, and what didn’t? Why did it turn out this way, and not another?’ Without this step, your speed can quickly turn into running round in circles, where you’ll make the same or similar mistakes time and time again.
In today’s world, it is almost always not the cleverest, not the most cautious and often not even the richest who wins, but the quickest and most adaptable, as the experts at PAnDiKubiz consulting company have concluded. It is the person who decides, acts and analyses more quickly, and through this accumulates experience that makes their quick decisions increasingly accurate. And alongside this, they develop another important modern skill: resilience and the ability to accept uncertainty calmly.
This is a very important step that strengthens your ability to make and implement decisions. Obviously, you need to analyse the outcome resulting from your decisions and actions. This stage must not be skipped. You should pause and ask yourself honestly: ‘What worked, and what didn’t? Why did it turn out this way, and not another?’ Without this step, your speed can quickly turn into running round in circles, where you’ll make the same or similar mistakes time and time again.
In today’s world, it is almost always not the cleverest, not the most cautious and often not even the richest who wins, but the quickest and most adaptable, as the experts at PAnDiKubiz consulting company have concluded. It is the person who decides, acts and analyses more quickly, and through this accumulates experience that makes their quick decisions increasingly accurate. And alongside this, they develop another important modern skill: resilience and the ability to accept uncertainty calmly.
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