How Do You Make Decisions Quickly?
The $100 MBA Show
Hosts Omar Zinhome and Nicole discuss strategies for navigating business decisions without losing momentum. They contrast quick, reversible
Key takeaways
- Utilize Jeff Bezos's 'two-door' framework to identify reversible decisions that don't require heavy deliberation.
- Apply the 70% rule: make a decision once you have at least 70% of the necessary information to avoid stagnation.
Main topics
- Reversible vs. Irreversible Decisions
- The 70% Information Rule
Notable quotes
Slow decisions have killed more businesses than bad decisions ever will.
Conclusion
Mastering the balance between speed and deliberation allows entreprene
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Slow decisions have killed more businesses than bad decisions ever will. Today's Q &A Wednesday's question is from Jalen, and he asks, how do I make decisions quickly? Jalen, I make a lot of decisions in one day, and most of the time, it's very, very quick. It's probably one of my number one strengths as a founder. Nicole, on the other hand, my co-founder, is the opposite. She's a lot more slow and deliberate, and that's what makes us a good team. So we're going to talk about... When to make quick decisions, when to take a little bit more time, because the actual decision matters most. So let's get into it, Nicole. Speaker 2 (0:35) Let's do it. Speaker 1 (0:41) Welcome back to the $100 MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zinhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business. Speaker 1 (0:54) Hey, if this show has helped you in any way, it would be amazing if you dropped us a quick review on whatever app you're using right now to listen to this podcast. It helps me and my team bring you new episodes every week. And more importantly, more entrepreneurs will be able to discover the podcast so you can help someone else start their journey. Nicole, be honest. What is it like to work with somebody who makes decisions quickly? Speaker 2 (1:17) Well, I'm not going to lie. It's been a point of frustration for us. And I think something that we've had to grapple with in our time in business, we've butted heads on this point over time. But I do think that we've come to a good place. And I think we're well positioned to discuss this question. Also, because as you alluded to, we both approach decision making in a different way. Speaker 1 (1:39) Yeah, I do believe that not all decisions are created equal. And I believe actually most decisions, probably like 90 % of all your decisions don't require that much deliberation. And we'll talk about why and are these decisions reversible and all that kind of stuff. Speaker 2 (1:54) So Speaker 1 (1:54) how do you like to make decisions? Speaker 2 (1:57) Yeah, I think I need to address something that I've had. Maybe some viewers and listeners might resonate with this. I had a lot of negative talk around my decision making. I've had people very close to me in the past, you know, as a child, as a young adult, tell me that I was indecisive and kind of call me, pull me up on, you know, come on, let's make a decision, you know, quicker than what I was maybe taking my time on. And I thought that was something that I was hardwired. It was a hard, like a part of my personality that was hardwired. But I do think that over time. I've come to see it as, well, I've come to reframe the situation as not someone who is indecisive, that's how I was labelled, but someone who does take more time to make a decision. Someone who is, I feel like I make decisions a little bit more carefully, more thoughtfully, more deliberately. And like you said, it's the obvious that we're not talking about every single decision. I'm talking about decisions that, you know, have more consequences behind them. So I felt like I just needed to say that because I've had a lot of negative self-beliefs around it, but I've seen it work for us. I've seen that, you know, our two approaches have actually been something that's helped the business. Speaker 1 (3:12) Yeah. And we're going to talk a little bit more later about some examples of. you know, these decisions made fast and one's a little bit more deliberate. But I want to say from the start that we've mentioned this already a couple of times that, you know, not all decisions are created equal. One of my favorite frameworks is the one door, two door framework that I learned from Jeff Bezos in one of his articles and one of his books. He talks about this idea that most decisions in life are two door decisions, which means that you can go through the door. If it doesn't work out, you can always go back out the door and make a different decision. Very few things in life and in business are one-door decisions where you go in and it's going to be incredibly hard for you to change that decision. You know, in life, that's like having a child or even a marriage. You know, it's a tough door to come out of. Yes, you can get a divorce and break up and things like that, but there's some serious consequences and costs to that. I believe in business, most decisions... actually, you don't actually need to make most decisions. You should be outsourcing some of these decisions. You should be making every single decision. A lot of the energy and time that you spend in business should not be making decisions that are not going to make or break the business. On top of that, I believe that most business decisions are two-door decisions. And you should get in the habit of being okay with making a decision and knowing that it might be wrong because it's okay. It's an experiment. You can learn from it. You can improve upon that decision next time around. And I actually learned a lot of this from playing poker because poker is all about making decisions and figuring out the outcome and then, you know, coming up with a better framework next time around and being okay with failing. Speaker 2 (4:44) Yeah, you're talking about like reversing the decision, walking back from the decision. And I think that's where I agree with you. And I think we're on the same page there. You know, if you can walk back a decision pretty easily, then you're okay. Then you don't have to deliberate on it for too long. Speaker 1 (4:59) And the reason why I bring it up is because the business timing has a lot to do with your success in business. It's not the right time. It's also how quickly you can make a decision so that you can be ahead of the competition. So you can act upon your ideas and implement them as fast as possible so that you're ahead of the market. If you're taking too long and worried about making the wrong decision, you often lose out on opportunities. So it's actually better for you to try and figure it out. And, you know, if it works out, fantastic. If it doesn't work out. Get out of that situation. Start another decision as fast as possible. Speaker 2 (5:30) Yes. And I agree with you. And I think where we differ is that you talk about your main framework. I think what you said is that you lead with the two-door decision, the reversibility. I like to add another axis to my decision framework, and that's the relational impact. Like, how is that decision, whether I walk back from it or not, how is it going to impact? whoever else could be impacted by it. Speaker 1 (5:56) I Speaker 2 (5:56) always think about maybe that's where it's tripped me up a little bit, like the impact of my decision, the consequence of my decision on those around me. And so I think I always stop to pause, and that's where the frustration has been, I think, with you. Give me Speaker 1 (6:10) an Speaker 2 (6:10) example. Well, okay. Something quite fresh was a decision that happened that was taken yesterday in a meeting. So we've now launched a program that we're kicking off in September. It's called the Residency Program where we'll bring a resident into the $100 MBA to work with us. We have already agreed on that project and a lot of work has been done to set it all up so that we're ready to go at the first of the month. And yesterday we had a meeting with our team. And at that meeting, you introduced a new idea, which was that if it doesn't pan out after the first month, then we'll revisit the whole program. Speaker 1 (6:55) Let me clarify. Speaker 2 (6:56) Okay, clarify. I didn't say pan out. I Speaker 1 (6:58) said, I think after the first month. We should have a meeting with the team because this is somebody coming from outside, joining our office space and going to share the space with us. I think I said after the first experiment,