“Water water everywhere, not a drop to drink” is the modern and well-known phraseology from the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”.  In essence this means that despite being surrounded by an abundance of something one cannot benefit from it.

In today’s Information Age we are surrounded by data.  It’s everywhere and often available at the touch of a button, or rather a screen.  Instant and easy access is demanded but despite computers and the internet the right data is not always so easily or readily found.  Data, and the right data is an essential ingredient for decision making.

At one extreme there can be an attitude of “don’t let the data get in the way my decision” while at the other there is a fear that there’s not enough data and aboulomania, pathological indecisiveness, may result.  Between the extremes there are optimal decisions based upon an appropriate evaluation of the available and applicable data.

Sherlock Holmes once cried impatiently, “Data!data!data!…I can’t make bricks without clay.”  He needed data for detection and determination.  The quantity as well as the source and quality of the data as well as how we treat it can make all the difference between a getting a decision right or just getting it plain wrong.  But far from being merely an elementary Holmes-ism, the determination of a decision is akin to an exact science and should be treated in a cold and unemotional manner.

Decisions and Deciders

But decision making isn’t always scientific.  Data is oftentimes incomplete.  Its quality can questionable and, when coupled with human emotion and risk appetite plus that not uncommon fear of making a mistake, decision making can be difficult for some and overwhelming for others.  Many MBA students will remember a module on Decision Support Tools where we are taught how to formulate decisions based on incomplete data, but data all the same

Decision Trees, Ishikawa Diagrams, and statistical evaluations… there are many, many tools both qualitative and quantitative that we can use but all depend on data.  Some people take data at face value and use it judicially, optimally, and timeously.  For others they question its source, reliability, repeatability, and applicability as they ponder its bias and potential error.  This consideration and questioning takes time and, rather than reaching a decision there are doubts and deferrals as decisions are avoided and protracted indecision prevails.

Decisions can be easy for deciders and they can be dictatorial, diplomatic or even draconian, but nevertheless, they are decisions.  But what about those who can decide but won’t, should decide but can’t, or just fear making a decision.  Who are they and why?

Indecisive and Undecided

We make decisions every day about what to do, what to wear, what to eat, who to see, where to go, what to say, and when to say it.  For some these can be difficult things.  How often do we see people in MacDonalds studying a menu only to be uncertain about what sort of fast-food they want; only a limited choice but unlimited indecision?

Indecision is everywhere and those who can’t decide can be described in many ways.  We have analysts, evaders, dodgers, ditherers, deferrers, doubters, procrastinators, pontificators prevaricators and even perfectionists.  They all have difficulty with decisions, even when the data is available.  Let’s have a look at a few of them:

Doubters – often hiding under the guise of perfectionists they look for more and more data and leave no stone unturned.  In Cantonese they say that a perfectionist is always “looking for chicken bones in the yolk of an egg” in a search for inconsequential minutiae.  Analysis paralysis, conclusion avoidance or late and, ultimately, untimely decisions are of little use.  Although possibly useful for historical analysis they are a far cry from the geography that decisions must provide.

Deferrers – even when data is available it’s not believed.  There’s a hope that circumstances will get better and the data is wrong.  If things get better, then today’s decision will be wrong and the future may be jinxed.  In the English West Country, they say “why put off till tomorrow what you can put off till next week”.  If a decision is deferred it doesn’t mean it can’t be made but procrastinators will make deferral and waiting for things to improve as their excuse for indecision.

Delegators –when in charge one can ponder, if in trouble you can mumble but when in doubt one can always delegate.  Delegatees can feel honoured to have been given the opportunity to shine but may quickly learn that they have been passed the proverbial buck.  They then find themselves in that awkward, uncomfortable and unenviable position between the rock and a hard place where they will be damned if they make a decision and certainly damned if they don’t.  Delegators can take credit if it goes well and if it doesn’t, they will have flushed out potential incompetents.  Any buck passed in a storm is well tossed.

Deceivers – they’re always conveniently unavailable.  “I’ll get back to you”. “Call me anytime” or “I’m busy but will certainly make it a priority” may provide words of comfort but underneath such sentiment there is a hope that they won’t have to be involved.  They also hope that by being apparently incapacitated somebody else will step in, take charge and make the necessary decision.  They may even say “leave it with me” and when it all becomes too difficult they can cite their other commitments and, inconveniently for those waiting, throw them the hot potato.

Grasping the Nettle – Actions Speak Louder than Words

They say that a nettle stings more painfully if it is touched lightly rather than grasped firmly; the act of making decisions can be similar.  Making a decision is an action.  The act of talking, and endless discussion is thought by some to give the impression that a decision is being made but in fact it’s just avoidance.  Such avoidance is not only an effortless waste of time it’s also a valueless waste of money.  Meetings to ‘discuss’ can be a far cry from a meeting to ‘decide’.

But professional ‘undeciders’ can quickly and effortlessly skirt around an issue, dismiss data by delving into inapplicable detail, and defer and dismiss matters while delegating ineffectively and deceiving the unwary.  The end result is almost always procrastination.  People who need decisions are then forced to either make their own or, while waiting, become frustrated and confused.  The undeciders can then, just as quickly and perhaps divisively, take advantage of the confusion, spin it into a tissue of complexity and defer decisions further while removing themselves from any turmoil through stealth; indecision begets indecision

But somebody at sometime will either make the decision or be forced to make it.  This brave soul must step into the breach, break any circle of avoidance, grasp the nettle, and upset the status quo of indecision.  It takes a combination of capability and competence to take charge in such a crisis as well as courage.  This is particularly true when there is a knowledge that there could be an absence of success and, without any pats on the back, they may have to ask for forgiveness (rather than permission), suck it up and learn from the failure.  For the competent such learning can come quickly and, hopefully, before failure raises its ugly and all too familiar head.  For the less than competent this learning may well be after that fact and painful.

Conclusion

According to the Law of Decision Making, “Any decision is better than no decision”.  A bad decision can be changed but in the absence of any decision there is limbo, time is wasted, people stand-by, and ‘discussion’ rather than ‘decision’ becomes the order of the day.

There is also the Law of Diminishing Returns.  At a certain point there is optimal data and, although the addition of more data may reinforce a decision it doesn’t add any more value.  Indeed, adding more unneeded reinforcement merely wastes money and that even more precious commodity, time.  And when it comes to time, we should also consider the Pareto Effect.  It’s oftentimes better to be 80% right and on time rather than be 100% right and be 20% late.  Decisions can be like people, “The quick and the dead”.

Decision making results in action and we should remember that “Actions speak louder than words”.  However, for those who insist on endless rhetoric they should remember that “empty vessels make most sound” and indecision eventually speaks volumes and its echoes reverberate loudly.  So, remember the Law and, right or wrong, make that decision on time…it can almost always be changed for the better, even if it later.

Bio:

Malcolm Peart is an UK Chartered Engineer & Chartered Geologist with over thirty-five years’ international experience in multicultural environments on large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects including rail, metro, hydro, airports, tunnels, roads and bridges. Skills include project management, contract administration & procurement, and design & construction management skills as Client, Consultant, and Contractor.