Over the past 2 weeks I've written about topics from Andy Grove's classic business book, Only the Paranoid Survive,. This week I'll expand into the idea of decision making with imperfect or incomplete information.
Grove talks about the idea of driving forward with decisions that make sense based on the information that is there, rather than the information that isn't. Discovery of new information may change the fundamentals behind a decision. However, waiting for all of the information to be available can be the poorer choice if it means a stagnant culture, slow response to customer or market demands, or letting competitors get ahead of you.
The interesting thing to me is that this idea seems to tie in perfectly to the idea of organizations applying "Learn By Doing" which I wrote about here. This is particularly true when you combine the idea with what Grove describes as the need to continuously challenge your own opinion, which I'll write on next week. It is much easier to pull the trigger on a decision that has imperfect data supporting it, if the culture exists to change course if and when needed. On that note, it is critical to understand that you can't implement Grove's ideas piecemeal. If you implemented just this part without the other principles of continuously challenging opinions, seeking ideas from all levels, and demanding debate, you are setting yourself up for potential catastrophe. Under Grove, Intel was able to execute their decision making process using these concepts because they were also able to rapidly adapt if new information arose that caused them to challenge their prior opinion.
Next week: Challenging your opinion continuously and changing course mid-stream...