Wait and see? It's time to decide.

There's a stack of decisions on your desk that aren't a no, but aren't a yes, either. You've just kept them open.

The sourcing shift you modeled in the spring, still under review. The price increase you know you've earned, not set. The second-shift hire, the equipment order, the vendor you meant to replace, all sitting in the same holding pattern, waiting for things to settle down before you commit. It doesn't feel like inaction. It feels responsible, like you're staying flexible until the picture gets clearer. It makes sense, right?

But a held decision is still a decision. Nobody can tell you what tariff rates will be next month, let alone next quarter, so the answer you're waiting for isn't coming. When you defer the decision, you haven't avoided a bet; you've placed one: that nothing changes and today's setup stays good enough.

Deferring feels free because the cost never shows up on a line you watch. The margin you didn't protect, the capacity you didn't add, the customer who left while you waited, none of it gets labeled “the decision I didn't make.” It just shows up as a worse quarter you can't quite explain. One held call is reasonable. A season of them is a large bet that nothing changes; deep down, we know that most things never stay the same.

The way forward isn't to decide faster; it's to stop letting deferral be your default. Split your open decisions in two. The reversible ones, the calls you could unwind in a week if you're wrong, decide now and move. The irreversible ones get a date: write down the one thing you're actually waiting to learn, and the day you'll decide with or without it. That turns “let's wait and see” into a choice with an expiry, not an open tab that never closes.

Pick the one decision you've been holding longest and give it a decide-by date this week. Reply and tell me which one it is, I read every response.

Thanks for reading,
Sarah