Why don�t your people make decisions?� Why do they procrastinate and delay decisions until

they have more info, better�info or anything else that will help them justify another week without committing to action?� Or better yet, they�ll wait until you come up with the decision yourself in the absence of any firm stance on their behalf.

Well, some recent research explores just that � why people fail to make decisions when the choices are right in front of them.� And the major finding is that people who get paralysed in the face of choice have a low degree of inhibition.� That�s not to say that they are extroverted, what it means is that their ability to inhibit some choices � to not choose something � is greatly decreased and without the ability to narrow down choices to a final one, decision-making (or choice-making) is impossible.

Stop thinking so much!

Think of it like this.� Just say I need to choose between five types of chocolate bars.� I think that I want the Mars Bar, but the rest of them look good as well.� I can�t stop the thought of what might happen if I don�t choose the others, I can�t convince myself that the Snickers or the Twix or the others would be the wrong choice (I can�t inhibit those decisions) and this prevents me from making any decision at all.� Some people will, in fact, walk away empty handed.� Especially, as the study explains, those with high anxiety traits.

So what does this mean for your team members?

Well, what are the reasons that people dwell on alternate choices?� What is it that stops people from ruling out the myriad of possibilities in order to make a decision and move the project forward?� Here are two things that are of utmost importance.

1. Clarity: Make sure you have one single most important thing to focus on

It is no surprise that most executives complain of conflicting priorities (see this research from Booz and Co).�� And if this is the case, then just imagine how their subordinates feel.� With so many conflicting priorities for our teams, it is no wonder that people fail to make decisions that stick.� When we don�t know what is most important, then everything is important, and it is impossible to prioritise decisions.

2. Celebrate Failure: Don�t punish people for making the wrong decisions

In the vast majority of organisations that I have worked with that cite indecision� as a problem, the one common thread they have is that people feel that it is not okay to fail.� In these companies, failure brings horrible consequences, regardless of intention.� Now, while people shouldn�t be making the same mistakes over and over again (another problem for another blog) people should also feel that if they make a decision and it�s wrong, they will still get full support and it will be treated as a learning experience.� So celebrate failure.� Let people know that, sure, Jenny failed, but what were the positives that came out of it, and how proud were you that she made the decision in the right context anyway?

Check with your people to see if this is how they feel.� Do they really understand what is most important?� How do they view failure � do they think it is punished or treated as a lesson learned?� The answers to these will tell you if and why your people get stuck in the black hole of indecision.

Urgency breeds intensity – can’t argue with that

For a long time (and still today), there were all manner of workshops, books and tools to help managers create a sense of urgency in the work of their people.� The benefits, so the idea goes, are built within common sense: if we can make people feel a greater sense of urgency, then they will work at a greater intensity.

This, I cannot argue with.� I mean, it is obvious to everyone that when things are urgent we work with greater intensity.� Just think about all those assignments and reports that you put off until the last minute, only to find yourself under pressure to get it finished by the deadline.� The immediate deadline made it urgent and most likely resolved your procrastination issues , while the long-term deadline (when you got the assignment five weeks ago) did nothing to intervene with your other �higher priorities� at that point.� Urgency does indeed make us work with more intensity and often frantically, so this would be a good thing for a work team, right?� Makes sense � or does it.

The ‘new’ productivity

There are many memorable experiments that show that being under pressure does indeed make us work harder, but rarely makes us work smarter (see Dan Pink�s example at TED).�� In today�s post-industrial workplace, where mass production is out and innovation is in, this might not make the most sense for your people.� Working harder might, in fact, make your people less effective by today�s measures.

By contrast, one of the elements of a high performance workplace that might make people more effective in this area is a feeling of control (my last blog focused on control as a biological need of all humans).� Agency, is an extension of control; it is people�s belief in their ability to control their outcomes, to make a difference to their performance and that of others and to be able to make progress toward their goals.� Now, you might think that this is all in their head � all up to them, but you would be wrong.

How we unwittingly stop Agency

Most of the employees I speak to tell me that their managers stop them from actually achieving the goals that those very managers set out.� Sounds crazy? Here are some regular examples that will resonate:

• I want to provide great customer service, but we aren�t allowed to make decisions
• You want me to track my activity, but I have to put everything into a clunky system in triplicate
• I want to pursue our goals, but you don�t measure them regularly or visibly, so I can�t see if I�m making progress
• You ask for my suggestions, but then don�t listen to them, so it makes no difference
• I am trying to do a great job, but I lack the training to be really effective

And just like that, we�ve destroyed a sense of agency in the very people who we want to do their best work.� The real tragedy is that most people want to do a great job � it makes them feel good � but managers treat people like they want to slack off.

Find ways to help your people see that they make a difference.� Find ways to put their best intentions into practice and enable them to do their best work.� If you can do this, your people will be most productive.