Principles

Work is respected in companies.

People who start early, finish late, take more responsibility and solve complex problems appear valuable.

Often they are indeed so.

But company growth does not depend solely on how much work gets done.

What matters far more is the decision that leads to doing that work.

For a wrong customer, you can very effectively create a wrong product.

In a broken process, unnecessary activities can be performed very quickly. With an unclear strategy, all departments may work at maximum effort while pushing the company in different directions.

Work amplifies the output of existing logic.

The decision determines what that logic is altogether.

Therefore, one right decision can create more value for a company than thousands of additional working hours.

Work is visible; leaving decisions undone is not

Leaders see how much people are working.

They see completed tasks, meetings held, proposals sent, features developed, and campaigns published.

It is far more difficult to see the work that arises because an important decision was left unmade.

If leadership does not select the right customer, marketing produces content for many different target audiences.

If leadership does not decide which product *not* to develop, development capacity gets split among dozens of features.

When accountability isn't clear, people spend time coordinating and seeking confirmations.

If a loss-making customer is not dropped off, an entire team deals with their exceptions.

Work happens.

Costs arise.

Calendars fill up.

But the true cause of actual workload may be one decision that was never made.

In such companies, people are not too slow.

Leadership simply failed to make a choice in time.

The Most Important Decisions Reduce Workload

A good management decision does not always add new activity to the company.

Often it removes a large amount of existing work.

Deciding to stop developing an incorrect project frees up team time.

Deciding to serve more clearly defined customers reduces exceptions in sales and implementation.

Giving responsibility along with decision-making authority to one person eliminates approval loops.

Fixing a mistake at the beginning of a process reduces later rework.

Stopping the use of unsuitable software can remove manual data transfers between multiple systems.

Poor management asks: "How can we do more?"

Good management first asks: "What work should no longer be necessary after making the right decision?"

Company efficiency does not grow only when people perform the same tasks faster.

It also grows when the company stops doing wrong work.

One strategic choice determines thousands of subsequent actions

Strategy is not a document stating what the company wishes to achieve.

Strategy is a decision regarding which choices will be made in order to reach that outcome.

When a company decides on which customer segment to focus, it simultaneously influences:

• product development;
• marketing messages;
• sales channels;
• pricing;
• service processes;
• required competencies;
• tools; and
• metrics.

Once the decision is clear, many individuals can independently make their own daily choices.

Without such a decision, every person must reinvent strategy for themselves.

Marketing envisions one customer.

Sales another.

Product development yet another.

Management feels satisfied because everyone appears to be working productively.

In reality, multiple distinct businesses are being built simultaneously.

The value of any single important decision does not lie solely in its direct impact.

It organizes thousands of subsequent actions.

The most important decision is often the uncomfortable act of letting go

Companies typically have more good ideas than they do time, money, or people.

Growth is rarely limited by a lack of ideas.

It is instead constrained by an inability to choose.

Leadership wants to simultaneously:

• serve existing customers;
• enter new markets;
• develop new products;
• improve old ones;
• increase sales;
• reduce costs;
• build processes;
• adopt new technology.

Everything seems necessary.

That is why all activities are labeled as priorities.

But a priority is not simply an item on a list of important things.

A true priority is the choice that allows you to forego doing something else equally important.

The most critical decision may be:

• which project to stop;
• which customer relationship to end;
• which product not to develop;
• which market not to enter;
• which activity no longer warrants investment;
• which person should not continue in a critical role.

Growth often requires more letting go than adding on.

Work Does Not Fix a Flawed Business Model

If serving each new customer costs more than the value they generate for the company, scaling up workload does not solve the problem.

If acquiring customers is too expensive, making more sales calls will not automatically improve the model.

If every transaction requires personal intervention from leadership, expanding the sales team will not scale the company's capability.

If each customer receives a custom solution, higher revenue and volume increase complexity rather than efficiency.

In such situations, a company may work very hard and even grow rapidly.

Yet it becomes financially or operationally weaker with every new client added.

What is needed is more work.

What is required are decisions to change:

• the target audience;
• the value proposition;
• pricing strategy;
• scope of offering;
• sales channel;
• service model;
• customer selection criteria.

One decision that improves a business model can transform the economic value of all subsequent work.

Without such a decision, increased effort merely amplifies the volume of an flawed model.

The right person has no impact if the decision remains in the wrong place

A company may hire a strong individual and assign them significant responsibility.

If all critical decisions are still made by the CEO, that person cannot fully utilize their capabilities.

They prepare decisions.

Compile analyses.

Gather confirmations.

Explain the same topic at multiple meetings.

The leader sees much work, yet decision-making remains slow.

In such a company, growth is not limited merely by the number of people.

Growth is constrained by where decisions are made.

The most important management decision may be to grant responsibility for certain outcomes and full decision rights to another person.

Not just one task.

Not just the right to make suggestions.

Full accountability coupled with the authority to choose how results are achieved.

This single decision can liberate both the leader's and an entire team's capabilities at once.

Postponing Decisions Creates Work

If a decision is not made, the organization remains stagnant.

People begin building workarounds around uncertainty.

Without a decision on which system is official, data is maintained in multiple locations.

When it's undecided who owns the outcome, meetings and coordinators emerge to fill the gap.

If continuity of a project hasn't been decided upon, teams expend minimal yet constant effort just to keep it alive.

When suitability for a critical role remains unresolved, others compensate for that person's shortcomings.

Every postponed decision spawns its own temporary organizational structure.

Over time, these temporary arrangements solidify into permanent ones.

New roles, spreadsheets, controls, and silent agreements take root.

Leadership may assume the organization's complexity stems from growth alone.

In reality, much of this burden is simply the accumulated result of unmade decisions.

Leaders avoid the most important decision because it carries responsibility

Work feels safe when you can order a study, hold a meeting, make a new forecast, launch a pilot, or ask for one more opinion.

All these activities suggest that something is being done about the problem.

A decision ends analysis and creates accountability.

If a decision turns out to be wrong, it becomes clear who made it.

Therefore, even the most critical decisions are often delayed.

Absolute certainty is expected.

Yet absolute certainty rarely exists in business.

More information can always be gathered.

The question is whether new information will truly change the decision or merely postpone an uncomfortable moment.

If leadership cannot specify what additional information is needed and how it would influence the choice, this may not reflect thoroughness at all.

It could simply be avoidance of responsibility.

The most important decision is not always the biggest one

Sometimes it is assumed that a high-impact decision must involve entering a new market, making a major investment, or addressing the entire company's strategy.

In reality, the most critical decision can be very specific.

What information needs to move from sales into execution?

Who may grant an exception for a customer?

Which system serves as the official source of truth for customer data?

Who is responsible for ensuring that the client achieves the promised outcome?

At what indicator's deterioration should a project be halted?

What work must not begin until an existing priority has been completed?

A small decision can have a large impact if it lies at a point where much subsequent work depends on it.

The importance of a decision is not determined by its drama.

It is defined by how significantly it affects the company's results.

How to Find Today's Most Important Decision?

The most important decision is not found through voting on ideas or by following the loudest problem.

You must move from the company's result back to its constraint.

1. What single outcome do we want to change?

Is the goal more profitable sales, faster delivery, better customer retention, stronger cash flow, or reduced reliance on leadership?

2. What is limiting this result the most?

Demand, sales, execution, money, competence, process, or decision-making?

3. Which unresolved choice keeps the constraint in place?

Must we choose a client, end a project, change price, delegate decision rights, or swap out the person holding a critical role?

4. What options truly exist?

Not just the preferred solution, but also opting out, simplifying, delaying, and assessing the cost of continuing current operations.

5. How much does postponing this next decision cost?

Money, people's time, lost opportunity, growing risk, and added complexity introduced into the system.

6. Who must make the decision?

There may be many discussants. The final decider must be one person.

7. When will the decision take effect?

A decision without a deadline, an owner, or changes to work arrangements is merely an opinion.

A decision does not create value until it changes behavior

Leadership may decide to focus on a specific customer segment.

If sales continues serving all customers, the decision has not been enacted.

It may be decided that more responsibility is given to leadership.

If the CEO continues reversing their decisions, accountability has not shifted.

It may be decided to discontinue unnecessary projects.

If people continue working with them in their free time, resource fragmentation remains intact.

A real decision must change at least one of these:

• budget;
• people's time;
• priorities;
• responsibility;
• authority to decide;
• metrics;
• process;
• activities that are discontinued.

If the company continues operating exactly as before after a decision, no decision was made.

A discussion took place.

A good decision gives others the opportunity to ask less

The most impactful leadership decision does not require a leader to decide everything themselves afterward.

On the contrary.

A good decision creates a framework within which other people can act independently.

When the right customer is clear, marketing can choose its message and channels.

When responsibility is clear, an individual can make decisions in their own area of expertise.

When priorities are set, teams can say no to new initiatives.

When quality boundaries are agreed upon, exceptions do not require a leader's personal judgment for every case.

A good decision reduces the number of subsequent decisions or brings them closer to work execution.

Therefore, a leader's value is not shown by how many decisions they make personally.

Their value is demonstrated by how many good decisions an organization can make without them, thanks to their clarity.

The Most Work Often Happens in the Wrong Place

The busiest department of a company may be focused on fixing errors from previous stages.

The most overworked individual may simply be compensating for unclear accountability.

The project with the largest budget may be protecting an outdated strategy.

The problem discussed most frequently may only be a visible symptom.

The volume of work does not prove its importance.

It can also indicate that the company has failed to make the decision necessary to eliminate this work entirely or render it far more valuable.

Therefore, leadership should not ask only where people are working hardest.

They should instead ask which decision would make most of that effort unnecessary or significantly more worthwhile.

Business grows through the amplification of decisions

Work is necessary.

No decision carries itself out on its own.

However, the value of work depends on which choice it follows.

One decision can direct ten people's efforts toward the right customer.

One decision can end a project that has consumed resources for months.

One decision can give a strong individual authority to lead an entire outcome.

One decision can remove a process flaw that a company repeated with every client.

One decision can turn an unprofitable sale into a profitable model.

Business growth does not always come from people doing more work.

Often, it comes when leadership stops delaying important decisions.

Business does not grow where the most work is done.

Business grows where a decision is made that changes the direction and value of all subsequent work.

Mikk Orglaan

Challeng.ist