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For 25 years, I’ve helped businesses build marketing that cuts through and scales revenue.

The Growth Guide is where I share the strategy, GTM frameworks, and execution tactics that actually work, from zero to scale.

Today’s topic: Decisions and How They Can Inhibit Growth
One of the biggest misconceptions about execution is that faster organisations simply make better decisions. In reality, many of them make fewer decisions by deliberately removing unnecessary choices before work ever begins, replacing recurring debates with clear principles, defined ownership, and agreed ways of working. The result isn't less thoughtful decision-making; it's less friction standing between intent and action.

As organisations grow, decision-making often becomes more complex without anyone noticing. New approvals are added, more stakeholders are consulted, and meetings intended to create alignment become part of the normal workflow. Each additional decision may seem reasonable in isolation, but collectively they create a hidden tax on execution. Momentum slows not because people lack capability, but because too many decisions sit between strategy and delivery.

This is what I refer to as decision density: the number of choices a team must make before meaningful work can move forward. High decision density doesn't just reduce speed. It dilutes accountability, increases context switching, and makes consistent execution harder to achieve.

Reducing decision density isn't about eliminating judgment or encouraging teams to move recklessly. It's about recognising that not every decision deserves equal attention. The strongest organisations reserve careful deliberation for high-impact choices while designing systems that allow routine work to move forward with confidence and clarity.

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Organisations that scale successfully don't eliminate decision-making. They eliminate unnecessary decision-making. Rather than asking teams to repeatedly solve the same problems, they create systems that establish clear expectations, define ownership, and remove ambiguity before work begins.

Although every organisation approaches this differently, the underlying principle remains the same: Routine decisions become part of the operating model, while people reserve their time and judgment for the choices that genuinely influence outcomes. As decision density falls, execution becomes faster, more consistent, and far easier to scale.

The following examples illustrate what that looks like in practice.

One of Amazon's most influential decision-making principles revolves around what it calls one-way door and two-way door decisions. A one-way door decision is so called because it is difficult or impossible to reverse and as such, it deserves careful analysis.

A two-way door decision is, by comparison, fairly low stakes and it’s easy to reverse or undo. Amazon believes these decisions should be made quickly by the people who are closest to the work, operating at “ground level” so to speak.

Rather than routing every decision through senior leadership, Amazon encourages teams to move quickly on those low-risk, potentially-reversible decisions while reserving executive attention for the small number of choices that genuinely carry more significant or long-term consequences. This simple framework dramatically reduces the number of approvals and escalations that slow execution.

My Take: Not every decision deserves executive attention. When teams know which decisions are reversible, they spend less time asking for permission and more time delivering results.

Netflix is well known for giving employees significant autonomy, although that freedom is built upon unusually clear context rather than constant approvals. Instead of requiring multiple layers of sign-off, leaders invest heavily in communicating the company’s priorities, strategy, and expected outcomes.

Because people understand the overarching objectives and the principles guiding decisions, they can act independently without waiting for permission on routine issues. Decision-making stays distributed and highly aligned.

My Take: Autonomy only scales when expectations are crystal clear. Great leaders reduce decision density by replacing approvals with context.

Toyota's production system is designed to solve problems so uncertainty is not allowed to cascade through the organisation. Workers are empowered to stop the production line immediately if they identify a quality issue, allowing the root cause to be addressed before it creates dozens of downstream decisions, rework, and delays.

Rather than forcing managers to repeatedly decide how to fix recurring problems, Toyota builds processes that eliminate the need for those decisions in the first place.

My Take: Every unresolved problem creates future decisions. Solving issues at the source removes complexity before it spreads throughout a business process or workflow.

Despite operating in very different industries, these organisations all apply the same principle. They don't ask talented people to make the same decisions repeatedly. Instead, they design systems that make routine decisions predictable, allowing people to focus their attention on the work that actually requires experience, creativity, and judgment.

As organisations grow, speed rarely comes from making better decisions in the moment. More often, it comes from designing environments where fewer decisions are needed in the first place.

The definition of decision density is fiarly simple. Decision density is the number of choices a team must make before meaningful work can move forward. Every approval, clarification, review, escalation, or meeting adds another decision to the process. While each one may appear reasonable in isolation, together they determine how quickly an organisation can execute.

As decision density increases, execution naturally slows. Teams spend more time seeking alignment, ownership becomes less clear, and momentum is interrupted by repeated conversations about work that should already be moving forward. Growth doesn't usually stall because people lack capability or commitment. More often, it stalls because too many decisions stand between strategy and action.

Managing decision density isn't about encouraging faster or less thoughtful decisions. It's about recognising that many decisions shouldn't need to be made repeatedly at all. High-performing organisations design systems that remove unnecessary choices before work begins, allowing people to focus their judgment where it creates the greatest value.

There are three practical ways to reduce decision density.

Every recurring approval or discussion should be challenged. If the same question is being asked repeatedly, it may be a sign that the process lacks clarity rather than requiring more oversight. Clear principles and well-defined processes often eliminate the need for repeated decision-making altogether.

Not every decision requires fresh debate. Standard operating procedures, templates, budget thresholds, playbooks, and predefined success criteria allow teams to move quickly without sacrificing consistency. Standardising routine decisions reduces friction while ensuring everyone works from the same set of expectations.

The goal is to protect human judgment and when routine decisions have already been addressed through systems and principles, leaders and teams have greater capacity to focus on the strategic choices that genuinely influence outcomes. This becomes even more important as organisations adopt AI and automation. Technology can scale execution, but it cannot replace sound judgment. If the underlying principles are unclear, automation simply amplifies inconsistency.

Decision density isn't a measure of how many decisions an organisation makes. It's a measure of how many decisions it still requires before work can move forward. The strongest teams reduce unnecessary choices through clear principles, standardised processes, and defined ownership, allowing execution to become faster without compromising quality.

Improving decision density is about creating an environment where people can move forward confidently because expectations, ownership, and boundaries are already clear. When routine decisions are removed from the process, teams have more capacity to focus on the work that genuinely requires experience, creativity, and judgment.

Here are six practical ways to reduce decision drag without sacrificing quality.

Most organisations map workflows, but relatively few map out the decisions that sit inside those workflows.

Choose a recurring process, such as launching a campaign, approving content, or onboarding a customer, and document every decision required before the work is complete. Include approvals, clarifications, meetings, status checks, and handoffs. You'll often discover that work slows not because the process is complicated, but because too many decisions interrupt it.

Consider This: If a decision doesn't reduce risk or improve quality, why is it still part of the process?

If the same discussion happens repeatedly, it probably isn't a decision anymore. It's a missing principle.

Clear guidelines, playbooks, and decision criteria allow teams to act confidently without continually seeking approval. Rather than debating the same questions every week, establish the principles once and let them guide future decisions.

Consider This: Which conversations could disappear entirely if the team agreed on a principle instead of revisiting the decision each time?

Decision drag often isn't caused by disagreement. It's caused by uncertainty about who owns the decision.

When ownership is unclear, decisions are delayed while people seek consensus, escalate unnecessarily, or wait for reassurance. Clearly defining who is responsible and who simply provides input can reduce hesitation while also allowing work to move forward with greater confidence.

Consider This: Would your team know exactly who makes the final decision if an important issue arose today?

Not every decision deserves fresh discussion.

Templates, budget thresholds, campaign frameworks, reporting formats, and approval limits all reduce the cognitive load placed on teams. Standardising routine work creates consistency while freeing people to focus on situations where judgment genuinely adds value.

Consider This: Where could a default replace a debate?

AI is exceptionally good at accelerating execution, but only when the underlying principles are already clear.

If teams haven't agreed on how decisions should be made, automation simply produces inconsistent outcomes more quickly. organisations that benefit most from AI first establish clear rules, ownership, and expectations before asking technology to scale them.

Consider This: If AI followed your current decision-making process exactly as it exists today, would the outcome be consistently reliable?

Most organisations measure delivery times, campaign performance, and financial outcomes. But relatively few measure how much time is lost before work even begins.

Look for repeated approvals, projects that cycle back for reconsideration, recurring requests for clarification, or initiatives that repeatedly stall between stages. These are often signs that decision density (and not execution) is slowing progress.

The next time a project runs behind schedule, ask whether the delay was caused by the work itself or by the number of decisions required before the work could continue.

As organisations grow, complexity has a way of creeping into everyday work. New approvals are added, more people become involved, and well-intentioned processes slowly evolve into barriers that stand between strategy and execution. Over time, the cost goes beyond slower decisions; you end up with lost momentum.

The highest-performing organisations understand that scaling isn't about increasing the number of decisions being made. It's about designing systems where the right decisions have already been made through clear principles, defined ownership, and thoughtful processes. By reducing unnecessary decision density, they create space for faster execution, stronger judgment, and more consistent results.

Take a fresh look at how work moves through your organisation. The greatest opportunity to accelerate growth may not come from making better decisions, but from needing to make fewer of them in the first place.

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See you in the next edition,
Geoff