A Decision Is Not a Decision Until You Take an Action

…..it was a tough meeting towards the end of a tough week and you really want to get away on time as it’s your son’s birthday party and the meeting is dragging and that endless long tail of trying to finish is going on and on and you need to reply to that text your husband has sent you and suddenly the organiser says…..

‘Cool. We are there. Sorry, that took a while, guys. Just to confirm, we’ve decided that Conglomerates will now be managed by South and no longer by West.’

Everybody waits. Can they escape? The organiser continues.

‘So, can I just get confirmation that everybody agrees?’ Everybody looks down and nods. That wasn’t a decision. That was a conversation.

A decision requires: o A specific action. o A person responsible. o A deadline. If those three elements aren’t defined before you leave the meeting, you haven’t decided anything. You’ve just talked. And you have just wasted the whole investment.

For example, This is not a decision: “We should launch the new website.” This is a decision: “James will hire a developer by February 15th and launch the new website by April 30th.”

Action: never leave a decision without knowing-and recording and someone owning-the action.