Every decision begins with the options we believe we have.
But over the years, I’ve started wondering if that’s really where a decision begins.
Maybe it starts one step earlier.
With a question.
Not,
“Which option is better?”
But,
“Have I considered all the possibilities?”
People often believe success belongs to those who have more opportunities.
I’m not convinced.
I think success often belongs to those who remain curious long enough to discover possibilities that weren’t obvious at first.
I’ve seen it with horses.
A rider believes there are only two choices.
Push harder. Or give up.
But sometimes neither is the right answer.
Sometimes the horse doesn’t need more pressure.
It needs a different explanation.
A different exercise.
A different environment.
Or simply more time to understand what we’re asking.
The horse hasn’t run out of possibilities.
We simply haven’t explored them all yet.
I’ve seen exactly the same thing in business.
Teams spend weeks discussing the same decision.
Option A.
Option B.
Meeting after meeting.
Until someone asks a different question.
“Are these really the only options?”
Nothing about the situation changes.
The market is the same.
The information is the same.
The challenge is the same.
The only thing that changes… is the perspective.
And sometimes, that’s enough to reveal a possibility nobody had noticed before.
To me, that’s what strategic thinking is.
Not having all the answers.
Not waiting for certainty, because certainty doesn’t exist.
But remaining open to the idea that there may be another way forward.
The goal isn’t to discover every possible option.
That would be impossible.
The goal is simply to avoid believing you’ve already seen them all.
Leadership isn’t just about making decisions.
It’s about creating the conditions for better ones.
Sometimes that means challenging an assumption.
Sometimes it means asking a question nobody else has asked.
And sometimes it simply means refusing to believe that the first two options are automatically the only two.
I’ve learned that the quality of our decisions isn’t measured by how quickly we choose.
It’s measured by how willing we are to keep exploring before we do.
Because every now and then…
the opportunity that changes everything…
isn’t a new opportunity at all.
It’s one that was already there.
We simply hadn’t asked the question that allowed us to see it.
Silvia
Add comment
Comments