Clearly, you cannot start and run a business without making decisions. The problem is that strategic errors caused by making the wrong decision can be highly problematic.
Obviously, this is not always the case. Minor errors that are seen quickly and easily rectified provide lessons learned for the next time – and often, small decisions will either be right, not that important, or not even noticed.
But getting a big decision wrong can have a serious negative impact and even put the business at risk.
So how can a business be confident it is making the right decision when indecisiveness creates stagnation and can bring the business to a standstill, while knee-jerk decisions can be reckless and irresponsible? Not to mention that our personal bias means that when we have an opinion of what we should do, or want to do, we nearly always find evidence to support it while discounting, or at least minimising, the evidence against it.
One way may be to tackle the issue head-on by weighing up the conflicting evidence and considering the pros and cons of the decision. This is a relatively easy process to help start-ups feel more confident about any decisions they must make.
As impartially as you are able, why not robustly argue first for a decision and then equally robustly against it? That way you are far more likely to uncover all the issues for consideration rather than simply making the decision for which you are likely to be unconsciously biased.
By working through opposing views, you can simply cut to the chase at the point where the two views agree – making the big decisions easier to reach.