Increase Your Critical Thinking by Committing To Your Choice

There is a story that I read in a book about Leadership (I believe it was the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell) that I want to share here.

The story went about as follows:

The author was studying leadership and asked if, to analyze some qualities of leaders, he could sit in in a military meeting.

Given that he kept the details confidential, he was allowed to observe.

The high ranking officers were discussing a plan of action for the soldiers overseas. It was in regards to an operation that had a lot of dangers and could cost many lives, so the officers were uncertain to say the least.

For a week the arguments narrowed down the plans to 1 of 3 possible choices, however, no decisive argument could be made to choose one way or another.

For another week they met every single day and argued the pros and cons of each choice, not narrowing it down at all. It wasn’t until the first day of the third week that an even higher ranking officer had to come in.

As he walked in he said this: “I have 30 minutes for this meeting, so I need to be briefed about each option quickly. Give me the shortest rundown you can. Go.”