Making decisions can take longer in distributed teams, especially if we have to wait for consensus from people in multiple timezones. We can make this easier by writing good proposals (see Writing Proposals ). We can also use the following three principles to guide us...
1️⃣ Treat decisions as reversible by default
Most decisions can be undone easily, and the negative effect of delaying a decision is often worse than the negative effect of making the wrong one. Assuming that most decisions can be easily reversed allows everyone up to make them more freely.
2️⃣ Make decisions at the lowest level possible
Most decisions should be made by the people closest to the problem - this is rarely the CEO.
3️⃣ Identify a decision owner early
If it's proving difficult to make a decision, try to identify a decision owner – it's this person's responsibility to make the call. By being explicit about this early we can save a lot of back and forth. Never be scared of asking "Who is the decision owner here?"
