362. Most Decisions Are Just A First Date

Most leaders aren't bad at making decisions — they're bad at knowing what type of decision they're making.
There are three levels of decisions: Dating (low-risk, reversible), Seeing Someone (medium commitment), and Marriage (life-changing, hard to reverse).
Leaders treat almost every grey-area decision like it's permanent, creating analysis paralysis and a culture of fear.
When you treat everything like a marriage decision, your team learns that changing course means failure and being wrong is dangerous.
The solution is simple: name the type of decision before you make it, then match your process to that level.

Before making any decision, explicitly label it: Dating, Seeing Someone, or Marriage — this clarity alone changes behavior.
For Dating decisions: decide fast, test it, and learn from it (you don't need all the info, just enough to move forward).
For Seeing Someone decisions: commit with an exit plan, set specific milestones, and decide when you'll make the call.
For Marriage decisions: slow down but don't freeze; get the information you can reasonably get, then decide despite the nervousness.
If you think something is a Marriage decision, try breaking it down into smaller Dating or Seeing decisions first.

Teach this framework to your team — communicating the decision level transforms your environment from cautious to agile.
Think of one decision you've been overthinking: What level is it actually? Then match your process to that level and move forward.