Problem: Waiting for the perfect plan can slow down progress and creativity.

Solution: Encourage teams to act quickly and learn from mistakes, focusing on trying ideas instead of seeking perfection.

Intro:

Action outperforms perfection every time. It’s always better to implement a good plan now than to wait for the perfect plan that may never arrive.

Build in a bias for action as a value. It accelerates innovation, teamwork, and execution far more effectively than waiting for the exhaustive consensus so common in non-profits. With a bias for action, your team will approach challenges with the mindset of “I will” instead of the hesitation of “Should I?”

Tools:

• When individuals are free to make decisions and act without excessive fear of failure, they gain the confidence to take bold, informed actions. It’s about shifting from analysis paralysis to rapid experimentation.
• Slow decision-making can be more costly than taking calculated risks.
• Most decisions can be revised or reversed, meaning teams can act now, learn fast, and iterate.
• With a bias for action, teams are encouraged to think creatively, test their ideas, and iterate on the results. Action breeds innovation.
• The opposite of action is outsized expectations. Large expectations is kryptonite to your team’s bias for action.
• When employees feel their ideas can be tested rather than endlessly debated, they gain the freedom to innovate without fearing they’ll be held back by bureaucracy or group hesitation.
• Taking action doesn’t mean abandoning data—it means actively seeking it.
• When action generates data, it removes guesswork from decision-making. Using XmR Charts
• Teams should evaluate choices based on whether they are "one-way doors" (irreversible) or "two-way doors" (reversible). Irreversible decisions are rare, and are part of the organization’s strategy process. Most other decisions should be iterative and rapid.
• Mistakes are inevitable; they are learning opportunities. Regularly share stories of past missteps that led to future successes to normalize the idea of learning through action. Kaizen / Continuous Improvement