Paralysis by Analysis

Some pearls of wisdom from a post by Tom Peters:

Any decision beats no decision.” … “When Microsoft decided online computing was real, Bill Gates refused to talk with employees for three months unless they prefaced the conversation, about anything, by explaining how it related to the Internet. That’s focus. No waffling. And the company immediately shifted direction.” I.e., if you’ve got a problem or incipient problem, don’t screw around and around doing analysis aimed at producing the “perfect answer”—just get the hell on with something, anything directly & unmistakably related to the issue at hand.

Having worked as a business/planning analyst, I can definitely identify with this as I have witnessed it first hand. Left too long, this problem can become ingrained into the culture of an organisation and saps the energy of those workers who are driven towards outcomes and who try and take initiative. Don’t get caught out!

[A further thought]:  I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and I’m not for one minute saying that I’m not guilty of this myself, but you must be AWARE of this tendancy and balance it with a good dose of pragmatism.

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