No matter what stage of the entrepreneurship journey you’re in, big decisions will always be looming.
Morgan Williams Brown, a Master of Business Creation (MBC) graduate and CEO of Blendyd Studios, recently led a Lassonde for Life workshop, “The Cost of Indecision,” to help you escape the “functional freeze” and make the smartest, quickest choice possible.
Brown’s decision-making expertise didn’t come lightly – when her twin brother suddenly passed, she inherited his company, then called Everwoke, with no clear path forward.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t do anything,” Brown said. “This ended up in thousands of dollars in legal fees and audits. My brother’s company had investors, many of whom were my family. I learned quite a bit about the cost of indecision.”
By following the five steps below, Brown said that you can avoid the high costs of inaction.
Reframe the guiding question
“When making a big choice, I often hear the question ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’” she said. “For a lot of folks, this is where we go to. But this question brings us back to a place of fear, of the potential for loss.”
A decision made from fear is often not the right one, she said. Instead, Brown suggests thinking of the situation from another angle.
“In this circumstance, I would encourage you to reframe the question to ‘What is the opportunity?’” she said. “What would it mean to conquer the barrier and make the hard decision? When you think this way, instead of fear, you’re operating from a place of faith, hope, and joy.”
Potential investors and customers respond better to a positive outlook, too.
“If your pitch has all the things that could go wrong if you buy this, will they buy it?” she said. “No. But if you can show the opportunity that comes with the risk of their decision, that’s much more likely to compel them.”
Break it down
Once you’ve reframed the question, remember that the entire journey should be taken in baby steps.
“When really high-stakes decisions come up, my mind jumps to being terrified,” she said.
To combat this panic response, Brown referred to a framework by U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd called the “OODA Loop,” a continuous feedback loop for breaking down big decisions.
1. Observe
“First, gather data from your environment to understand the current situation,” Brown said.
Your focus should be determining the right kinds of questions to ask.
“Is it a business question, like what’s happening in the market, or what are my competitors doing? It’s important to stop and take a moment and think about the actual decision to be made. In my mind, with Everwoke, my decision was, ‘Do I have to end my brother’s company?’”
Through observation, Brown found that wasn’t the right question.
“Instead, I needed to consider: was the technology viable? What do I need to learn? When I took the time to observe, I was able to identify and ask these better questions.”
2. Orient
“Next, analyze the information you’ve observed, and position yourself based on your context, experience, and goals,” she said. “I really emphasize the word ‘your’ because it’s your situation.”
Understanding that she was out of her comfort zone when handling her late brother’s company was important in her decision-making process.
“There’s a world where someone with a lot of experience with Utah, technology, or trucking was in my situation, but no, it was me,” she said. “This is where you get honest with yourself and understand what you specifically are trying to achieve with this decision. Assess it through your knowledge, bias, and assumptions.”
It’s important not to let yourself get siloed, though. Brown recommends talking to five different people about your decision.
“At least two should be experts, and then another two should be those who understand your emotional needs around the decision,” she said. “Some decisions are hard not just because of a legal question or that there’s a lot of money involved, but because it’s our own personal life that has to be guided.”
Finally, talk to someone who disagrees with you.
“If you can’t find someone who will disagree, then this isn’t a hard decision,” Brown said.
3. Decide
“This is the hard part, but it has to be done,” she said. “Select the best course of action based on your observations and orientations.”
4. Act
With everything you’ve observed and considered, you now need to execute your decision with clarity and focus.
“The big thing to think about is my why,” Brown said. “As long as I can justify the reasoning behind my decision, that gives me comfort and peace. Following the steps above has helped assure me that my decisions are informed by a mix of expert advice and how I feel emotionally.”
It’s not just you who needs to know about the decision being made, though.
“If you’ve done this correctly, you understand the impacts of your decision,” Brown said. “Now, you need to communicate these decisions and expected outcomes to stakeholders and teams.”
Celebrate
Not all parts of decision-making should be a drag.
“When I do hard things, I deserve a celebration,” Brown said. “No matter what the decision was, how hard it may have been, you did it! Everyone wants to be the leader until it’s time to make a hard decision. Take your moment and enjoy because most people are not willing to do what you have just done.”
Prepare to be wrong
Once the party hats are off, Brown counseled that you must continue to be grounded.
“We want to make decisions and always feel justified and right, but you need to be okay if the decision was wrong,” she said. “New information may arise; new situations may change what would have been the right decision to something wrong. You might have to change your mind or throw out the original plan, but it’s better to have made a decision than not.”
Pivot and try again
If you did find out that the decision wasn’t the best – if you learn new information because of the decision you made, for example, don’t be afraid to begin again.
“Entrepreneurship is an iterative process, so sometimes we have to be creative and find new solutions,” Brown said.
Initially, Brown’s big decision was to dissolve Everwoke. That was the right idea at the time – but it soon evolved into something else.
“I had learned so much from taking that action,” she said. “I had technology audits and connections to lawyers, I understood the real consequences of not managing administrative processes of a business, and I had also learned a lot about trucking.”
These experiences showed Brown that, yes, maybe she could be an entrepreneur. Soon after dissolving Everwoke, she launched Blendyd Studios, a new iteration.
“It continues to be a challenging journey, but the highs are high – we’ve won awards, made history, we have a product that people are using, we have a smart team. Some of these decisions have led to low lows as well, but I choose every day to get back up and follow this framework when faced with a tough decision.”
