This week we’re looking into decision making insights and frameworks to help us learn more about:

• why we can become fatigued by an idea or decision before we even begin to implement it

• how to avoid inaction and take steps to truly make a decision

• which decisions to approach with fluid flexibility and those that require precision and time 

Execution Delay refers not to decisions that we need to make, but to decisions we seem to have already made.

Let’s say for example you have been wanting to start a YouTube channel. You know that you WANT to start the channel, the decision to start one has already been made… but that was a few weeks ago, and alot of things have come up since then and well… work has been a bit busy and then… the other night friends invited me out to dinner so I had to go…….

Ok so then you go to dinner with your friends and you tell them all about the idea of your YouTube channel - what its going to be called, the style of the videos, unique elements to separate yourself from the crowd, etc.

The feedback you receive is magnificent, everyone is so excited - you feel accomplished without having taken any action.

Here lies the first issue: Discussing projects that we haven’t yet started or are in the process of working on them. When we’re discussing the start of our new venture in open forums (like with friends and family), it becomes real in our mind, we begin fleshing it out mentally as if we’re taking the very actions that are being discussed.

People are congratulating us, on the decision to start a YouTube channel, and how fantastic its going to be - which is more than most of us can ask from our support groups, but our brain interprets their feedback as if we’d already taken the action deserving of the reward.

From simply discussing something and receiving feedback, your brain is interpreting it as real progress, being fed titrated drips of dopamine as a positive feedback loop - yet we haven’t taken even a single action towards the decision we made to start the YouTube channel.

This thing that once was so exciting and had boundless potential, becomes cumbersome and we’re now mentally fatigued by discussing it and receiving all the little bits of feedback, until one day you’ve made the subconscious decision not to go ahead with it at all - this time the decision sticks, because everyday you’re taking the action not to start the YouTube channel.

We’re ok with this, because well, it never felt like quitting - its more a ‘I could have but I have chosen not to’. In reality, its a real failure of implementation whilst being imprisoned by the brains reward mechanisms.

This doesn’t just apply to imaginary YouTube channels, we could be training for a marathon, all the while, receiving feedback about how wonderful it is, how disciplined we are, etc. not realising that our chances of getting to the finish line are diminishing.

Here’s 3 ways to overcome Execution Delay:

1.

Talking, thinking and doing all vie for the same resources. They’re all in competition with one another and whilst talking and thinking take less effort and time than doing, only one of the three creates tangible progress

Remember that:

Talking about the thing, is not doing the thing

Thinking about how you’re going to do the thing, is not doing the thing

Preparing and scheduling time to do the thing, is not doing the thing

Reading a book, on how to do the thing, or how other people did the thing, is not doing the thing

Making a to-do list to do the thing, is not doing the thing

The only thing that is doing the thing, is doing the thing

2.

Only begin discussing projects that you have been working on (i.e. taken real actions to implement), once they have been completed or are very nearly complete

Feedback is critical, whether its constructive or congratulatory, but we need to take steps to ensure its not shorting out brains reward loops

3.

Remember that a decision remains unmade until the first action is taken to support it

With this is mind, if you re-read the process of making the decision of starting the YouTube channel, because no action was ever taken to support it, a decision to start was never made

Know that for each decision you have made, that has not yet been met with action, the decision remains unmade. You could even argue that the decision has already been made as a result of inaction, in which case ask yourself “How much do I really want this?”

A decision making framework described by none-other than Amazon’s Jeff Bezos on his approach to making decisions. This applies to practically every decision we come across in life - they’re either one-way door decisions, or two-way door decisions.

A two-way door decision is one that has a bit of slack, meaning you can enter through the door spend a little bit of time there and if you don’t like it, you can come back through the door and go through another one.

Here’s an example of some two-way door decisions:

• trying a new work schedule - like shifting to a 4 day work week

• trying out a new software to improve productivity or efficiency

• marketing strategy for a new product launch

Or some personal ones:

• deciding whether to go to spin class or boxing circuits

• a different route for your commute

• trying a new hairstyle

However - some decisions are so consequential, so important and difficult to reverse that they are one-way door decisions. They need to be deliberate and careful. If there is even one more way you can think of to analyse the decision, then you need to do that.

Some one-way door examples include:

• merging with another company

• implementing a major IT system overhaul

• launching a new product line with substantial investment

Or some personal ones:

• buying a house

• undergoing major surgery

• emigrating to another country

The issue lies with a one-size fits all decision making process that is applied to all decisions. Either the framework is too light for one-way door decisions, such that there are too many unknowns to make a truly informed decision, or the the framework is too heavy for simpler, two-way door decisions, where a tremendous amount of time and resources is being used for decisions that are easily reversible.

From a professional perspective, small teams or individuals should be empowered to make two-way door decisions. When approaching personal two-way door decisions, free yourself from the shackles of thinking decisions are finite and irreversible - after all, if you don’t like spin classes, you can pivot easily to boxing circuits or if you didn’t like switching your commute, you can revert back to your norm the next day.

Next time you approach a decision, see which framework of thinking it falls under and approach it either as an opportunity to get really precise (one-way) or as an opportunity to learn or experiment (two-way).