More is More, Enough is Enough

What size shoes do you wear?

I wear size 11. (Information)

European sizes don’t directly match with North American sizes, but I’m generally a 44 or 45. (More information)

But some brands tend slightly larger so I might be a 10.5. (Even more information)

A size 11 is generally 10.9375 inches or 27.9 centimetres. (More information than I need?)

When it comes to making decisions the challenge used to be not being able to get enough information. That is less frequently the issue now, information is highly available.

The challenge is to get the right information; the information that drives the decision.

We can get sucked in to believing that more information is always better, but it isn’t. Unless you’re making shoes you probably don’t gain anything from knowing the measure of shoe sizes in inches.

The question to ask isn’t “Do we have all the information?’; it’s not even “Do we have the best information?’, it’s always “Do we have the information we need to make the decision?”.

Some leaders, and organizations, have a tendency to make decisions too soon. They don’t have enough information to avoid the dangers of their assumptions.

Others have a habit of not making decisions until they have every bit of information possible. They avoid making the commitment because there may be something important they don’t know yet.

Have a conversation with yourself, your team, or a trusted advisor and be honest about which way you’re more likely to make mistakes. Then develop a habit of defining what is enough information for each situation.

And, for the record, I recommend going to a qualified retailer to make sure your shoes fit. Sometimes a little outside expertise is the right information.