Indecision …Deliberate or factual

Many of us are faced with situations wherein we find ourselves struggling to arrive at a decision…we see ourselves in a state of indecision. Personally, I have been in such state a couple of times. Being in this state has caused me botheration because it neither allows me to move forward nor backward….confines me to a state of limbo, a state of vegetation (sic).

Given my own personal viewpoint on this, what surprises me, is the zone of comfort which people can enjoy while being in a state of indecision. This has often intrigued me… I mean what makes people live in this state, survive and at times even thrive.

My observation has driven me to certain viewpoints on this which is as follows:

1. There are some people who, when faced with tough situations, requiring firm decisions, resulting in resolute actions, develop cold feet. They would often create a mini parliament around them, look for voice votes and then get further confused with fractured verdicts. They are afraid to take situations head on and certainly do not want to bell the cat.
2. A different set of people are comfortable living in this state of indecision. They feel that time is a big healer, has answers to all questions, that God will intervene and show them the path – till then it is God’s will.
3. The third set I find really interesting – they know what should be done to resolve the impasse, yet they don’t do it. They will have a thousand reasons for not taking the next step. Somehow, they feel that the existence of this uncertain scenario is best suited for their (under) performance. This allows them to offer a so called credible reason for their performance, keep their team unduly stressed in the hope that this sort of a mental state will help derive optimum performance from the team.
4. Some people are just incapable of taking decisions on their own. They need crutches. Their current position in the organizational hierarchy seems more a matter of chance than merit.
5. Sometimes an act of indecision is factually driven by the absence of clarity on the way ahead by the concerned individual. While the person concerned with taking the decisions may be actually gathering various perspectives on the situation at hand to arrive at the correct decision, he/ she is certainly not part of the aforementioned sets.

So then is there something more to the eye that intuitively drives people to a state of indecision?

My observations suggest that in some cases the individuals concerned with taking decisions have been a protected lot. They have, either by chance or by choice, always learnt to work in the shadow of somebody and when faced with situations to be handled single handed, they freeze.

For others, it is the fear of a decision resulting in wrong outcome which keeps them indecisive. This could be a result of organizational culture / policy on outcomes of decisions or risk taking.

No matter what the circumstance or the reason for indecision, there can never be a worst state for the business / individual to be in. “Still waters always breed bacteria”.

Views please….

By: Sumit Singh

Dated: 10^th Feb, 2014