Most important decisions have to be made with incomplete information. The skill to build isn't waiting — it's deciding under those conditions.
A useful distinction: reversible decisions and irreversible ones. For the first kind, speed matters more than precision — try fast, and turn back if you're wrong. For the second, slowing down makes sense.
Three questions that shorten deliberation
- If this decision is wrong, what is the biggest cost, and can the business bear it?
- What information would change my mind? If there isn't any, waiting longer is pointless.
- Who will be most affected, and have they been asked?
Not deciding is also a decision — it's just made by time instead of by you.
One last thing: write down the reasons for a decision at the moment you make it, including the assumptions you're relying on. Six months later, that note tells you whether your judgment was wrong or the conditions simply changed. It's the only way your decision-making genuinely improves.