SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How analytical is your organization?
- Highly — we analyze everything sometimes at the cost of action: 42.71%
- Very — we balance analysis with judgment: 27.62%
- Somewhat — we do some analysis but act quickly: 19.44%
- Not at all — little analysis, mostly action: 10.23%
Analysis Paralysis. Doing more analysis is often a stalling tactic to avoid making a decision. There’s a limit on how much data you can gather to predict the future. Your ability to make decisions based on good data is also a function of how strong your organization’s analytics program is. If you’ve created a solid analytics team, the likelihood of making faster decisions with better data goes up significantly. So try to build a solid analytics program and once you’ve gathered sufficient data, make your decision and move on with life.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, author of “Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results” and “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”