…in business.”
This is one of Jeff Bezos’s takes on how to drive things quickly and effectively.
“Most decisions should probably be made with around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, you’re probably being too slow.”
This reflects Bezos’ belief in the importance of acting quickly and avoiding analysis paralysis.
Damn. I’ve been wrong all this time – I always use the 80:20 rule. I am now upgrading this to the 70:30 rule.
But he doesn’t believe you blindly move on with only that 70%. You’ve got to act quickly, and iterate: “If you’re good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think. Being slow is going to be expensive for sure.”
Bezos was referring to companies but this equally could be applied to people.
Delays in making decisions and delays in taking action leads to delays in getting results.
Yet every week I speak to a handful of analysts and data leaders who are proud of how slowly they make decisions. They see it as considered, measured, “analytical”.
If you have identified a problem like a lack of decision making and action in your company, been presented a solution and that solution meets obvious criteria.
Commit to the solution and implement it.
As fast as you can.
When Norman came into our Tableau Insights Community at the end of September 2024, he wanted help finishing his dashboard on student courses being taken as provided by The Economist, so that his colleagues had up to date information with which they could make informed decisions.
(Ring any bells?)
He decided quickly.
He committed quickly.
He took action quickly.
He got results quickly.
Within days he had re-worked his dashboard and had it up and published and was getting great feedback from his colleagues. This was his first dashboard.
His boss messaged the group:
“Congratulations to @Norman for publishing his first Tableau workbook today on Economist Education enrolments 🎉
Those of you who attended @Steve A’s session last week will recognise it.
A really clean dashboard – informing users about the courses onto which people are enrolling. Take a look on Tableau Cloud.”
While others are still:
“Thinking about it”
“Looking at all their options”
He’s getting results.
And he’s only just getting started.
Are you ready to jump into the fast lane or are you in the slow lane on the road to “somewhere”?
We can get you going in the fast lane. Today.
Send me a message with “Fast Track” and I’ll put you ahead of the pack.
To your success
Steve Adams
