We have been collectively sold this idea that the more data we have, the better decisions we can make. But what nobody is telling you is that leaders making the best decisions right now have access to less information than you do, not more. Why? Because they’ve just gotten better at ignoring what doesn’t matter. And possessing that skill of knowing what to ignore is what we’re going to talk about in today’s episode.
The Information Abundance Trap
Most leaders have a plethora of business intelligence dashboards, analytics, and real-time metrics on data points ranging from employee surveys to market reports and competitive intelligence. Now, we have Generative AI created insights giving us even more outputs. What is interesting is that every tool promises to provide us with more clarity, and platforms claim they will make us smarter.
But ironically, the data says otherwise. The data says that leaders today are making slower decisions with less confidence than we did five years ago. Why?
Executives are spending an average of 23 hours per week in meetings, with additional hours reviewing reports and analytics. That’s consuming information before making decisions, a massive investment of time and cognitive energy.
And, here’s the kicker: all that data hasn’t made decisions any better. McKinsey research found that 61% of executives said at least half the time they spent making decisions was ineffective.
The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough data, but rather, we lack a system for distinguishing between data that deserves attention and noise.
What Managing Information at Scale Taught Me
I’ve spent two decades helping organizations manage information in high-stakes situations, such as millions of documents, where missing the wrong detail could cost millions of dollars.
Early in my career, I saw teams overwhelmed by data, convinced that a thorough review was the key to success. They were wrong.
The winning teams weren’t the ones that collected the most. They were the ones who could triage faster and focus harder on what moved the needle.
Here’s what I learned: 90% of your data is context, and only 10% is actionable intelligence.
As leaders, our job isn’t to know everything; our job is to know what to ignore.
Most leaders never learn this distinction. They treat every metric like it matters equally. Every report gets the same level of scrutiny. Every dashboard demands attention.
To be clear, that’s not thoroughness. What that creates is analysis paralysis dressed up as diligence.
The Framework You’re Missing
To help you make better use of your time, I've developed the RAPID Decision Triage Protocol. It’s designed to move you from information overload to decision clarity in minutes, not hours.
R - Relevance Filter
Before you dive into any data, ask one question: “Does this information change a decision I’m making this week?”
Not eventually. This week.
If it doesn’t change a decision this week, it’s not urgent. Park it.
A - Authority Check
Who owns this decision, and what’s my role?
Are you the decision-maker, an advisor, or just being informed? If you’re not the decision-maker, your level of analysis should match your level of authority.
Stop doing deep dives on decisions that aren’t yours to make.
P - Proportionality Principle
How much analysis does this decision actually deserve?
A $50 million decision deserves more time than a $5,000 one. Most leaders treat them the same. That’s the problem.
As I talked about in Episode 21: When the Metrics Mislead, hitting the numbers isn’t the same as winning. The same applies here—analyzing everything isn’t the same as making better decisions.
I - Impact Assessment
What happens if you get this decision wrong?
Not every decision deserves the same level of certainty. Some decisions are reversible. Some are one-way doors. Spend your cognitive energy accordingly.
D - Decide or Delegate
This is where most leaders fall apart.
They gather data, analyze it, discuss it, and then... schedule another meeting to review more data.
At some point, you have to pull the trigger. If you have enough information to make a 70% confident decision, make it. If you don’t, delegate the information gathering to someone else while you focus on decisions only you can make.
Remember what I shared in Episode 17: Do We Really Need Another Meeting? Executives spend over 20 hours a week in meetings, yet most of these hours are unproductive and misaligned. The same discipline applies to data review. Just because information exists doesn’t mean you need to consume it.
Speed IS Quality
Here’s where most leadership advice gets it wrong. They frame this as a trade-off: you can have fast decisions or good decisions, but not both. I disagree.
Speed IS quality when you’re deciding on the right information.
Slow decisions based on comprehensive data aren’t better—they’re just slower. Fast decisions based on the 10% of data that actually matters? Those are the decisions that move organizations forward.
High-performing teams make faster decisions with less information.
Research from Stanford found that the fastest decision-makers had access to less information than their slower counterparts, not more. They just got better at identifying leading indicators and ignoring lagging noise.
This connects directly to what I discussed in Episode 19: Why Successful Leaders Fail. Success can blind you to failure. When you’re overwhelmed with data, you assume you’re being thorough. You’re not. You’re coasting on the illusion of analysis while actual clarity slips away.
The 90% Certainty Myth
Here’s a conversation that happens in boardrooms everywhere:
“I need more data before I can decide.”
“How sure do you need to be?”
“At least 90%.”
“And where are you now?”
“Maybe 75%.”
Let me tell you something that will save you weeks of unnecessary analysis: You will never get to 90% certainty on a forward-looking strategic decision. Ever.
The future is unknowable. Market conditions shift. Competitors move. Customer preferences evolve. The variables you’re trying to model don’t hold still long enough to give you the certainty you’re chasing.
The best you can do is get to 70-75% confidence and make a decision that’s reversible if you’re wrong.
That last 15-20% certainty you’re chasing? It isn’t real. What does exist is the opportunity cost of waiting while you’re gathering more data, your competitors are moving, your market is shifting, and your team is stuck in neutral.
The leaders who win understand this. They don’t wait for perfect information. They make high-quality decisions with good-enough data, then iterate based on what they learn.
Your Operating System Needs an Update
The tenets of the Golden Leadership Cycle™ (Reinvention, Resilience, and Empowerment) that I created, and which make up the foundation and overall framework of everything that I do here, demand that you reinvent how you process information, show resilience in the face of uncertainty, and empower yourself to decide with conviction even when data is incomplete.
Here’s your practical takeaway for this week:
Audit your last five decisions. For each one, write down:
How much time have you spent gathering information
How much of that information actually changed your thinking
How confident were you when you finally decided
Whether more time would have increased that confidence
I bet you’ll find the same pattern I see everywhere: more time gathering data rarely increases decision confidence, but it always delays action.
The leaders who win aren’t the ones with the most data. They’re the ones who can cut through the noise, identify what matters, and decide with speed and conviction.
Indecision, after all, is actually a decision; it’s just the quietest way to fail in disguise.
And if the RAPID Decision Triage protocol resonates, share it with another leader who’s drowning in dashboards but starving for clarity.
