Page 91 - Lean six sigma demystified

70 Lean Six Sigma DemystifieD

Indecision Isn’t Safe

Managers rarely get hammered for not making a decision, but they can often
get pummeled for making the wrong decision. Indecision can kill your business
just as easily as liberate it. A bad decision that you can learn from and reverse
direction is better than no decision. In the movie In Harm’s Way, with John
Wayne and Henry Fonda, Fonda’s character says “Indecision is a virus that can
destroy an army’s will to win.” It can kill your company’s will as well.

The Economies of Decision Speed

Speed doesn’t just matter on the front line or the factory floor; it matters in the
boardroom as well. Start measuring the cycle time for decisions. Reward people
who make fast decisions. Reward people who have the flexibility to revise their
decisions as they learn. Don’t punish the slow to decide; just don’t reward
them. Put time in your schedule to work on important things, not just the
urgent. Remember, it’s not the big that eat the small; it’s the fast that eat the
slow. Accelerate your decision making—at work, at home, or in a restaurant.
Learn to make faster, smarter decisions. Are decision-making delays hampering
your business progress?
I do a lot of Lean Six Sigma process consulting. Sadly, I can tell by how long
it takes a company to decide to hire me just how long it will take to make any
of the changes. Slow decision-making begets slow implementation begets slow
results. Delayed decisions keep companies from making rapid progress toward
performance and profitability goals.

Decision-Making Mindset

Rapid decision-making requires the right mindset. Here’s a test. Are your ulti-
mate outcomes in life determined by external events and environments or ulti-
mately are up to you and within your control? Do you believe that you need
all of the information before making a decision or that 70% is enough to make
a decision? Do you believe that decisions are based on facts or that gut feel and
intuition play a big part in decision making?

Internal versus External
Jim Collins says that the best decision makers believe that how life turns out
is ultimately up to them. If you think that everything is outside of your con-
trol, you won’t even look for answers or solutions. Your own thinking becomes
a trap.