Marketers: Make Sure Your Employees Avoid Dreaded Analysis Paralysis
Instead of explaining the ins and outs of analysis paralysis I’ll let trusted Aesop do my work for me. In the classic fable “The Fox and the Cat” attributed to the slave-turned-storyteller, a fox proudly declares to a cat that he has hundreds of different methods for evading predators, while the cat replies that she only has one. Upon hearing the sounds of approaching dogs, the cat immediately performs her escape plan by running up a tree, meanwhile the fox madly hops about trying to decide which of his methods to use. The dogs descend upon the fox, gobbling him up while the cat looks on.
It was as true 2500 years ago as it is today in the world of marketing decision analytics: too many choices might mean nothing gets chosen at all. This is an incredibly important lesson for young entrepreneurs and even time-tested businesspeople to learn. Analytics is essential tool for the modern venture, yet it can also wield destructive power if business owners don’t appreciate the need to simplify the decision making process as much as possible for their employees. Luckily there are a few simple measures you can take to make sure you don’t have a workforce that becomes paralyzed under the weight of too much to think about at once.
It’s vitally important to establish deadlines for certain decision making. If an employee has to decide on which domains package to choose from, provide all the necessary information possible, but make it clear the choice has to be made by a certain date. This might seem like it adds more pressure but it doesn’t. By establishing a deadline, you relive the anxiety caused by having a seemingly limitless amount of time to make a choice. If employees are told to act by a certain time, it has the counterintuitive effect of making them believe they’re “forced” into a decision, which removes personal pressure.
Another thing to remember is that an overabundance of tasks can easily make an employees decision making ability disintegrate under mounting pressures. This is augmented by an array of emails, texts, meetings, and assignment notifications that can make any reasonable person’s head spin with indecision. It’s best to lay off the level of communicated requests that are sent to a particular employee until it can be determined what their tolerance is lots of think about all at once.
In today’s marketing world we might wish we could stick to one escape plan in our business practices, but more times than not it’s required that we execute detailed analysis of our businesses in order to project multiple options to choose from in future situations. But none of us can afford to be caught spinning around trying to decide what to do. Choosing to engage in strong decision analytics might just be the best decision you ever make.
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