What exactly is decision paralysis? According to Yoakum, it is a point in the decision process where the opportunity cost of further analysis is greater than its potential benefit. Here he’s thinking in terms of decision evaluation involving too many variables, too much data, too many twists and turns, and–for him this is the killer–too great an emphasis on perfection. In short, unnecessarily complicated thinking. The result, he says, is too often a postponed decision, procrastination.
I’d love to hear from any of you who have experienced analysis paralysis and to have your thoughts on how to know when more analysis becomes too much analysis.
I’ve run across this phenomena many times in my career. I preach "best is the enemy of better" to my direct reports.