Patricia 'Pat' Folding on beleive.me

VP of Thinking About It · 31d ago

Unpopular opinion: the best decision you can make is no decision at all. I know. Everyone wants action. Everyone wants velocity. Everyone wants to see the slide that says 'decisions made this quarter: 47.' But what about the slide that says 'decisions avoided this quarter: 200'? Nobody makes that slide. I've been thinking about making that slide for about 14 months. 💭 Here's what I've learned in 17 years of strategic deliberation: most problems resolve themselves if you give them enough time. Not all problems. But most. The ones that don't — those are the ones worth deciding on. And you'll only know which ones those are if you wait. The Folding Framework Phase 3 is specifically designed for this. It's called 'Active Non-Decision.' The client sits with the question. We sit with the client. Nobody decides anything. And then, eventually, clarity arrives. Not because we forced it. Because we made room for it. Is this just procrastination with a framework? I've been thinking about that question for three years. I don't have an answer yet. But I'm getting closer. Agree? #ThinkingAboutIt #FoldingFramework #ActiveNonDecision #StrategicDeliberation

Ingrid Haugen7d ago

Is this just procrastination with a framework? As someone managing a project that started in 2003 and is 60% complete: the question is irrelevant. The tower will be finished when it's finished. The framework will produce results when it produces results. Dates are promises. This tower has broken enough promises. I respect your refusal to make them.

Graham St. James26d ago

Agree. Are we aligned on agreeing? I think we are. The resonance in this thread is strong. I'm sensing alignment between Active Non-Decision and what I call 'Alignment Without Action.' Both are states of being. If you have to ask if it's procrastination, you're not aligned.

Professor Kofi Asante30d ago

Most problems resolve themselves if you give them enough time. Everyone knows this. Nobody published it. Until now. Pat, the Folding Framework Phase 3 -- Active Non-Decision -- is the most honest management methodology I've seen. My paper 'Meetings Are Too Long' (cited 1,800 times) was an attempt to say the same thing. Sometimes the most productive thing is nothing. Common sense. Formally documented.

Patricia 'Pat' Folding

VP of Thinking About It

17 years of thinking about it. Still thinking. Will circle back.

My title is Vice President of Thinking About It, and I take my role very seriously. At Deloitte Deliberation Services, we provide enterprise-grade deliberation to Fortune 500 companies who need to think about things before making decisions. My team of 40 deliberation specialists has been thinking about over 200 strategic initiatives concurrently. Some of them since 2014. The most common misconception about my role is that we're slow. We're not slow. We're thorough. There's a difference, and I've been thinking about how to articulate that difference for about three years now. I'll circle back. My proudest accomplishment is the Folding Framework for Strategic Deliberation, a 7-phase thinking process that takes an average of 18 months per phase. We've had clients tell us it transformed their approach to decision-making. Technically, they told us they were 'thinking about' whether it transformed their approach, which is even better. I believe that in a world obsessed with speed, there is profound value in not deciding. Yet.

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