What Happens When You Do Not Make a Decision?

Denial as the Silent Start of Indecision

Denial never looks like denial.

What you get are clever sounding statements that excuse the change that’s taking place.

These statements cloud the issue, bringing into play assumptions, biases, reframing the issue—and setting up positions that make displacement child’s play.

• “It’s just a glitch.”
• “It’s working okay now.”
• “Change will be expensive.”

Leaders use anchoring to enforce their defence.

They position themselves to ignore the decision. Often the reason comes down to some issue of authority or skill set that may weaken if they have to change.

The refusal to even consider worst-case scenario planning increases the scope of denial.

It makes the impact of not deciding more impactful, as you’ll see.

In the story of the ERP system, comfort, as it often does, made denial easier.

But every legacy ERP system carries risks.

The Cost of Pretending Nothing Will Change

Legacy ERP systems are great, until they’re not.

We had the good old green screen. With ‘C>:’ prompts and back-slashes that looks like to code to most millennials.

The trouble was that growth had overtaken it’s capabilities.

Over a ten-year period, sales doubled.

But the ERP system was still the same.

Denial let the board write the warning signs off as glitches.

There’s the moment when the operators screen just freezes like it’s posing for a picture.

And then the backup’s take longer. There is a lag in order generation from a client API that never used to be there.

These are changes. They are signs something isn’t right.

But change means expense—and with an ERP system, that means lots of expense.

And growth is exciting.

It’s intoxication made overlooking those early warning signs a simple action.

But as Brooke Berman said, “To deny change is to deny life.”

Displacement — Avoiding Decision by Doing Other Things

The ERP system issues get bigger.

One causes a two-day shutdown that give some on the board seizures. Not a single order was processed by the distribution centre.

The backlog feeds overtime like an over-budgeted buffet at a staff party.

At the board meeting there is an acceptance that change has to happen.

But you’ll notice it’s not a deliberate decision. Instead it feels like a negotiated settlement that keeps the peace.

From one perspective, anxiety looms over the decision like a storm cloud on a bank holiday weekend. You know it’s going to rain, you just know when, and how heavy it will be.

Avoidance and confusion always follow a decision lacking substantive agreement.

Displacement fuels this hiatus of deferring the tough decision by focusing on secondary activities.

Let’s be clear what displacement looks like.

When Action Becomes Avoidance

The right action taken at the right time…

That’s how you win.

The wrong action taken at the right time…

That’s avoidance.

So, without any deliberate decision, the IT director started looking for a replacement ERP system.

But he did it without a full understanding of what they needed. It was a clear sign of leadership paralysis during the ERP replacement process.

This familiar pattern is the silent threat to business resilience—a risk that hides behind activity with no clear direction.

Shopping without a list is dangerous. Vendors pitch in the dark, turning selection into a can-kicking exercise.

If you’ve seen endless debate with no closure, you’ve seen displacement.

And that avoidance tactic suited those who felt they stood to lose more than they gain from change.

The Trap of Chasing Perfect Certainty

Why do people struggle to make decisions?

Because what they want is perfect certainty.

Our desire in this false existence is a prime driver of indecision.

Irreversible decisions carry this stigma. We are so scared of making the wrong decision, especially when it comes to a big choice over a new ERP system, that paralysis descends.

The board’s moment of making a decision by accident leaves an open book of requirements that lack definition.

This adds complexity, compounds hesitation, and breeds even more uncertainty—making perfect certainty impossible.

And it’s here in the second stage of not deciding, displacement, strikes a home run.

Striking the ball out of the park becomes a game.

But unlike most games, the consequences are more significant. Because this tough decision that hasn’t been made comes with consequences.

The email campaign that can’t be sent reduces sales that affects revenue and commissions. The long-term project to add a partners API to the ERP can’t happen, damaging relationships.

The pain is real.

These costs are real.

Most organisations experience them—growth stalls, decline begins.

Despite denial and displacement, desperation eventually takes hold.

It’s not long before ‘if’ becomes ‘when’. The day comes when a system shutdown forces the board’s hand, and last-minute, frantic decisions replace months of quiet avoidance.

How close is your team to that moment? What costs are quietly building—just out of sight?

Desperation — Forced Action Under Pressure

The legacy ERP system was clearly struggling. The impact was throttling email campaigns because the system couldn’t log the orders correctly.

And then the penny finally dropped.

The sole developer of the legacy system quit. This sudden exposure hit the board members like a cold plunge into icy water.

When the Problem Becomes Urgent

In what felt like the blink of eye, the board acted.

It was crisis management 101 in action.

Developers from the ERP company arrived and embedded themselves across departments.

Experienced power-users of the legacy system were assembled to help ensure alignment between the new and old systems.

Within days, a process document was produced. The logic and flow of information within the old ERP system were contained in a voluminous booklet.

The board countered their desperation with urgent action.

Gantt charts with impossibly tight timelines spread nervousness throughout every team.

How well does your leadership respond when pressure replaces planning? Are tight deadlines a symptom of reactive rather than strategic leadership?

It was pressure no one welcomed, but the business desperately needed.

The old ERP system was effectively put into lockdown. Any new development requests within the old system were halted.

This only intensified the pressure on the teams and developers. The executive team knew that the business couldn’t grow again until the new ERP system was operational.

The Price of Last-Minute Decisions

The knowledge gap was vast.

How many times does your organisation face knowledge gaps before costly consequences become unavoidable?

Users are not designers. Knowing the outputs from software is very different to creating the system flow.

Unsurprisingly, the first deadline slipped. Then the second, and then the third.

As the timeline increased, so it became clear the process document wasn’t as detailed as it should have been.

Test runs in the new ERP system fell over. The gap analysis list grew daily.

And along with it, the cost.

Every gap needed developer time to not just patch it, but to understand it in ways a developer would, but a user wouldn’t.

These delays and knowledge gaps expose organisations to serious operational risk and escalating costs.

The crisis management approach could only fix so much. Desperation bred quick fixes that often created new problems.

Last-minute decisions, along with choices the board were forced into created more issues:

• The managing director left
• The timeline slippage became one of years
• The business stagnated, with trust and morale broken

Reactionary leadership during crises can erode business continuity and fracture team confidence—often with lasting consequences.

The knock-on effects were profound. The flexibility the company once had to move fast and step into opportunities disappeared.

In total, the move from the legacy ERP system to the new one took six years.

The multi-million-pound cost underscored the heavy price of indecision.

In leadership, nothing goods from being a reactionary leader. Choosing indecision is effectively surrendering control—a costly gamble for any leader.

But every crisis offers lessons—what this story reveals about leadership and decision-making will shape what comes next.

Final Lesson — Recognising the Meta-Decision

If there’s one lesson from the chaos of indecision, it’s this: before you can lead effectively, you must master the decision to decide.

I’ve used the story of an ERP system change to show the impact of not making a decision. For you, the insights extend far beyond the challenges of changing software systems.

The skill of leadership isn’t how well you lead others. It’s how well you decide.

And to do that, you first need to decide how to decide.

The Butterfly Effect of Not Deciding

It’s clear there are consequences to not making a decision.

A tiny delay or hesitation can set off a chain of unpredictable, large-scale problems later on.

As a leader, it’s easy to ignore the possible ripple effects.

Confirmation bias gives you evidence that says changing nothing changes nothing. This is a fool’s fallacy that the butterfly effect swots away.

So you have to defeat this bias.

Breaking free from this requires conscious effort and vigilance. And that means becoming alive to the decision.

Are you fully aware when a decision is unfolding around you, or is it quietly slipping by unnoticed?

As leaders, the awareness that a decision is in progress is critical. I see the great risk of not deciding resting on this pivot point.

Recognising the meta-decision—the decision about how to decide—gives leaders powerful frameworks and clarity over criteria, constraints, and accountability.

Instead of sliding into indecision, you’re shaping the frameworks and validating how you will decide.

You get to consider:

• Constraints — time limits, costs
• How will you decide — criteria, benchmarking
• Who will decide — operational ownership, stakeholders

When an legacy ERP system starts to falter, there is a decision to be made. Being alive to it gives you control a reactionary process can’t.

And that’s why not making a decision carries serious consequences.

From Awareness to Ownership

Awareness is the gatekeeper to decision-making.

As a leader, you need to be alive to changes in information as much as you are to seizing sales opportunities that create rewarding outcomes.

This is a responsibility no leader can ignore. It’s why awareness must lead to ownership.

Breaking the indecision cycle starts with your attention to the changing nature of life.

It isn’t easy.

There are lots of biases influencing how you see information, actions and potential outcomes.

Mindfulness and structured approaches can help leaders overcome decision fatigue and cognitive traps.

Mindfulness and awareness have never been more crucial.

Next, we explore how this awareness transforms uncertainty into decisive action that drives organisational success.

Practical Takeaways — How to Avoid Falling into Indecision

Indecision means you have decided not to make a decision.

(which is still a decision…)

So, the good news is that there are some warning signs to alert you your awareness has let a decision past.

We are all fallible. We all suffer from moments where decisions go unnoticed.

But following some self-checks can prevent this from happening.

I’m also going to share frameworks and ways to become more decisive. So here all the tools to help you avoid not deciding.

Warning Signs and Self-Checks for Leaders

Self-awareness is like having a conversation with yourself.

But to open your mind to those moments of not choosing, you need to ask yourself some questions. These are self-checks follow warning signs good leaders look for to make sure they’re not drifting.

Here are some:

• Analysis on repeat — Are you revisiting the same data without moving forward? This should be red flag that indecision is present. Ask: Are we gathering insight or postponing choice?
• The Consensus theatre — Meetings that end with vague agreements often mean that indecision is hiding as compromise. Ask: Who truly owns the decision here?
• Emotional discomfort masked as rational caution — Hesitation hides fear, whether it from failure, risk, or loss. Ask:  Is this fear preventing progress? Am I avoiding discomfort at the business’s expense?
• Decision fatigue —Are you overloaded with too many decisions to the point you can’t decide? Ask: Am I overloaded to the point of avoiding tough calls?

I would also advocate reflecting proactively. A good reflective decision-making process helps you, not just by looking back, but but helping you decide forward.

What decision is needed today? This is a simple question that keeps you grounded on the task in hand.

Simple Frameworks to Encourage Decisive Action

Constraints can stop us from not deciding.

Set up in the form of frameworks, they remove the responsibility of letting indecision win by forcing decisions from us.

These offer a great way to avoid decision paralysis that lives in organisations.

Here are a few:

• The 70% Rule: When you have about 70% of the information needed, commit to a decision. Waiting for 100% perfection often leads to paralysis. This rule balances informed judgment with timely action.
• Timeboxing Decisions: Set strict deadlines for decisions—even for complex issues, deadlines create needed pressure to focus on what matters, eliminating endless review cycles.
• Decision Trees: Break complex choices into smaller, manageable steps with clear options and consequences. This clarifies pathways and reduces overwhelm.
• Role Clarity Tools: Define who owns what decisions upfront (RACI framework), across organisational levels, to prevent passing the buck or duplication of indecision.
• Fail-Fast Mindset: Accept that some decisions will need tweaking. Frame choices as experiments to learn quickly and adapt, reducing fear of irreversible mistakes.

Each of these are ways to good leaders make decisions.

How to Build Confidence and Momentum When You Decide

Cultivating confidence and momentum in decision-making is an ongoing journey.

It starts with small, deliberate steps.

Leaders who reflect regularly on their recent decisions build trust and resilience. Celebrating successes, no matter how small, strengthens confidence for bigger challenges.

Connecting decisions to the organisation’s bigger goals helps clarify their importance.

This connection inspires decisive action.

Relying on a trusted network of advisors reduces blind spots and shares the burden of tough choices.

It also builds collective accountability.

Ultimately, fostering a culture that recognises and rewards decisiveness creates a powerful cycle.

This culture encourages leaders to act with purpose, clarity, and conviction—even in uncertainty.

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