When Analysis Paralysis Hits, Here’s How to Cut Through It
By Peggy Tierney Galvin, co-founder, chief strategy officer
Analysis paralysis: whether you’re standing in the condiment aisle or trying to understand what’s happening in the news, you know the feeling. (You might even be a member of Congress; congratulations?) As I told my kid last week, at some point you look around for a grown-up for help… and realize that you’re the grown-up. Scary!
When I was little, I always imagined that there was a Magic Forcefield of Perfect Knowledge™ that grown-ups pass through upon reaching a position of responsibility, or a certain age. (Although this might be a feature in the next update of Claude. If so, please submit it to Y Combinator.) Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. We – evidently, regrettably – are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
The good news – and believe me, my previous drafts were even more chipper – is that your competition is frozen by the same paralysis. Side note: One great thing about American hegemony – and there are many! – is its core function of delivering a foundation of predictability for businesses. Today, business leaders have to consult crystal balls, or vibes, to plan ahead. Are the tariffs happening this time? Which ones? No, those ones were lifted. (Maybe cod liver oil cleared them up.) When I retrieved my copy of “Portraits of Courage” from the floor yesterday after having thrown it at the wall several times, I recalled that President Kennedy wanted to tell the stories of leaders who did the right thing in the hardest moment. After all, there’s no guarantee that “doing the right thing” will be “a risk that pays off.” In the old days, no one ever got fired for buying IBM. Today, it’s more like “reply hazy, try again later.”
But we can’t stay paralyzed forever. That doesn’t mean we punt. We also need to make decisions we feel good about. Knowing how to make the right choice in difficult circumstances is called discernment, and it means reaching down into your heart and soul to find the answer. When I lead media training sessions, I tell participants that the skills they use to prepare for a briefing will be useful in different areas of their lives: as coworkers, as parents, as citizens and as members of their communities. Those skills include asking yourself: What do I want to accomplish in this conversation? What does success look like for me? And just as important: what does the other person want to accomplish? How can we find a way to achieve success together?
This is the discernment that cuts through analysis paralysis. (You may discern at this very moment that this process can be applied to important decisions outside of business, but we’ll leave that to another day.) Ultimately, when we make choices, we are people encountering one another as people. Block out the noise. Look at the person at the other end of the table. Are they your customer? Are they your partner? What do they need? What can you give them? And how can you help them?
Because at the end of the day, it’s like I tell my kid when he’s struggling with something, “It’s OK, we’re going to do it together.” Let’s get to work.
