Best Practices in ERP Project Management: Decisions are Progress

Posted by Jody Leoni on August 3, 2011

I enjoyed reading about how quick decisions can impact culture in Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier. Here are some highlights and thoughts:

When you put off decisions, they pile up. Piles end up ignored, dealt with in haste, or thrown out. As a result, the individual problems stay unresolved. Whenever you can, swap ”Let’s think about it” for “Lets decide”. Commit to making decisions. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.

When you get in a flow of making decision after decision, you build momentum and boost morale. Decisions are progress. Each one you make is a brick in your foundation. You can’t build on ”Lets decide later”, but you can build on ”Done”.

Don’t postpone decisions in the hope the perfect answer will come to you later. It won’t. You are as likely to make a great call today as you are tomorrow. It doesn’t matter how much you plan, you will still get some stuff wrong. Don’t make things worse by over-analyzing and delaying. Long projects zap morale. The longer it takes to develop, the less likely it is to launch. You don’t have to live with a decision forever. If you make a mistake, you can always correct it later.

Make the call, make progress—get something out now, while you’ve got the motivation. When we model a culture of quick decision-making we’ll also build a motivated, optimistic environment, and amazing momentum.