Musings at Altitude

Once you finally get to a “yes” or “no”, how many more people do you coordinate with to confirm what you already know is the right answer?  And, in seeking that confirmation, is that coordination process for you to feel better about the decision or for the organization to feel involved and accepting of the decision?  My guess is that all that additional discussion is more for the organization than for you because the answer rarely changes once you get to a “yes” or “no”. 

One obvious way to speed up the OODA loop of an organization is to immediately announce the answer as soon as you know what it will be and eliminate all of those additional coordination and confirmation steps.  Those additional steps are what frustrate the components of the organization waiting on the answers, and any goodwill achieved by seeking additional counsel or input is quickly offset by the momentum killing affect of the rest of the organization waiting on that particular answer to move forward or adjust actions.

Momentum is so hard to build in a big organization, and its precious once achieved.  The path to a “yes” or “no” as well as the actual answer can have a dramatic affect on any momentum that is built.  A bureaucratic and senseless “no” may kill momentum, while a strategic and vectoring “no” can help drive focus and thus drive momentum.  An ill thought out and mindless “yes” may distract and distort momentum, while a strategically anchored and visionary “yes” could instead greatly accelerate growth.  Regardless of “yes” or “no”, if it takes an inordinately long time to get the answer, any possible momentum that could have been achieved will have been squelched long before the answer was given.

So, to optimize the OODA loop, minimize the decision making steps for both “yes” and “no”, and then confidently announce the decision once you know what the answer will be.  Eliminate all those meaningless, feel good steps that benefit the bureaucracy but kill momentum.  And then smile in knowing that whether “yes” or “no” is the answer, the organization is moving one direction or another and not waiting for answers to take any potential next step.