Let’s face it, we all rush to judgment at times.

On the little, every day and momentary things – it is incessant.

That perfume makes me gag.  That person’s too fat, too skinny, too rich, too poor.

In my case I rush to judge other drivers… every one of them.  No matter what they’re doing – driving too fast, slow, in my lane, it just doesn’t matter.  They were sent by Satan to torture me.

Moronic, right?

But today I’m thinking about rushing to judgment before making important decisions.

Most of us also rush to decisions.  That is, we make the decision we want to happen, then build the rationale to support it.

Why not the reverse?  Line up all the facts, get others involved for their perspective, then make a slower but far more informed decision.

Is it laziness?  A need for control?  Or emotional preference: “What I want to happen is X, therefore my only decision and action can be Y”?

A more considered approach is anathema to my personality.  As a short fused, creative Irish kid, I prefer fire, aim, ready to deliberate, thoughtful decision making. But that’s of course why I’ve spent so much of my life cleaning up my bad decisions.

Currently I’m working to facilitate a monumental decision by the leadership and congregation at the parish I grew up in.  As with virtually every faith community in the USA, particularly in rust belt rural areas with declining employment and populations such as ours, consolidating faith communities has become essential to survival.  As facilitator, my primary duty is to slow this rush to judgment.

To get things rolling, I studied the situation behind the scenes for months then proposed a plan.  As with all plans, it is directional so now it’s up to all those involved to fill in details for the plan to see if it stands the light of day.  All I’ve proposed is a situation analysis along with rough budgets and timelines for a solution.

In business, the planned decision process is called red light, yellow light, green light.  That is, we lay out what might make sense and then spend a lot of time discovering right directions, or green lights, directions that need work, or yellow lights.  Sometimes, something stops the plan, that’s a red light.

What decisions, personal or business are you considering right now or might have already been made that you wish to approach more objectively?  Are you making a rush to judgment, then building your logic?  Or would you be better off writing a plan and sharing it with others so that you can find the red, yellow and green lights before you decide?

Peace,

Tim