Jim, you made several excellent points in this edition of NI. “Lazy thinking” is all too often disguised in the garb of “complete investigation” or “gathering more data”. I’ve witnessed more than one initiative where decisions were delayed in order to more fully develop the idea to the point that when the final decision was no longer timely.
Paraphrasing Lee Iacocca who said that the essence of good decision making was knowing when enough data was available so that a reliable decision could be made. Great decision-makers seem to have a knack for knowing what data is needed, what data is trash, and when enough good data is in hand to make the decision and then call the shot and move forward.
Consider two situations on opposite ends of the spectrum;
· Predicting elections has developed to the point that most often election outcomes can be predicted with high degree of reliability when only 10% (or less) of the total votes have been counted.
· Reaching court room decisions are oftentimes delayed for years due to data-gathering and procedural gaming to the point that most have forgot what the original issue really was and the connection between the incident and the final judgment is lost.
I can fully support your “T-6” list of principles of human beings.
Highest regards, Edward A. Turner
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