Be Your Best

Eventually, just about everyone is involuntarily involved in a major disaster at some point in their lives — and hopefully not more than one or two.  My wife and I experienced and survived Hurricane Iniki when we lived and worked in Hawaii.  Very scary.  This past weekend, we experienced first hand another major disaster — the massive flooding and Dam Break at Lake Delhi.

Just like a Hurricane, there was advance warning that there was going to be a problem coming.  However, you really never know exactly how bad that problem is going to get.  Unfortunately, it got pretty intense, and much worse than anyone expected.  It was beyond comprehension.  The warnings were communicated at about 11:00 am on Friday July 23rd.  By 3 PM, the water was 4 feet above normal.  By 9 PM, the water was 6 feet above normal.  By 5 AM the next morning, the water was 10 feet above normal, and rising.  By noon, the water was 14 feet above normal, and still rising.

When I woke up to the situation (I had actually slept a little better than I had anticipated I would), I immediately went into a mode of ‘Decision-Action’, and ran outside to check on the status of our neighbors.  Water was all over the place, and some houses were already 1/2—2/3 under water.  I went to the house that was closest to the edge of the rising flood water and ran inside to begin helping remove their furniture and possessions.  When that house was done, we moved on to the next house in the path.  And so on.  Then, immediately off to get sand bags.  For about 5 straight hours that day, there was no delay between making decisions and taking action, which is what ‘Decision-Action’ is.  Decision and Action were fused together.  There was no time for over-analysis or doing more research.  And things do get done quickly and efficiently in this mode.

Your Threshold for Decision-Action:

Your ‘threshold’ for Decision-Action is the point at which you move into a mode where there is essentially no delay or time between a Decision and Action.  You make a decision, and boom, you are instantly taking action on that decision.

Why is this Decision-Action concept important?

Essentially, the more you can operate in Decision-Action mode, the better, in terms of achieving goals and objectives, or solving problems.  Most of us are rarely fully in this mode, or are in it a very low % of the time where the stakes are medium-to-high at work or in our personal lives .  Super successful people typically have a lower threshold for Decision-Action, and operate in that mode a much higher % of the time vs. the average person.  Consequently, more stuff gets done.  More Cost Savings get implemented, more Suppliers get reduced, more innovations get introduced and completed, and more problems get solved.

Decision-Action is not about short-cutting or sloppy analysis.  Analysis and research happens before the Decision.  Decision-Action is about taking action immediately after the decision has been made.  How many times have you made a decision and then delayed taking action or possibly never taking action — and then you missed an opportunity or the result came much later than it could have or in smaller amount than it could have?  Yes, it’s possible that taking immediate action after the decision can result in a negative outcome occasionally vs. waiting.  However, studies have repeatedly shown that taking less time between decision and action results in far more positive outcomes than negative.

If you can lower your threshold which puts you into a decision-action mode more often, you will get more done, achieve greater success and results, and reduce your stress.

How do you lower your Decision-Action threshold?  The simplest way to do this is to increase the sense of urgency for more things you are involved with: create more self-imposed deadlines (shrink and define the time allotted to complete tasks and projects), think about the negative consequences (pain) of not getting something done vs. the positives, and create more shorter term goals (always written down).

Just starting to focus attention on this concept of Decision-Action, and becoming more aware of when you are making a decision but then waiting to take action, will improve your results.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford