By:
Anna McCalpin Ph.D.
Head of Behavioral Science
What behavioral science reveals about decision quality in fast-paced projects
Every project is a chain of decisions: What’s in scope? What’s the priority? Who’s doing what? When teams make clear, timely decisions, work moves forward. When they don’t, projects stall.
But most teams struggle because their decision-making behavior is inconsistent. Without often realizing it, they miss cues, avoid tension, or skip closure.
Behavioral science offers a practical lens for understanding and improving decision quality. It tells us that decision-making is a repeatable set of behaviors, and when teams learn those behaviors, decisions get faster, clearer, and more effective.
Decision-Making Is a Team Behavior
In high-performing teams, decision-making is a predictable pattern that shows up in every meeting. From a behavioral science perspective, four behaviors make the biggest difference:
1. Cue the Decision: Teams clearly mark the moment when a decision needs to be made. This might look like:
- “Let’s make a call on this before we move forward.”
- “This feels like a fork in the road—do we go A or B?”
Why it matters: Without this cue, people stay passive. They may not even realize a decision is on the table.
2. Invite and Structure Input: Team members are given an intentional opportunity to weigh in. This might look like:
- “Let’s hear from each person; just one sentence on your take.”
- “Before we decide, any reasons we should not go this route?”
Why it matters: If participation isn’t structured, some people dominate and others go quiet. Input becomes biased and incomplete.
3. Reinforce Dissent: Disagreement and concerns are acknowledged and encouraged. This might look like:
- “Thanks for pushing on that. Let’s dig into it.”
- “That’s a good challenge. What might we be missing?”
Why it matters: When dissent is punished or glossed over, it disappears. And so do better options.
4. Close the Loop: Decisions are explicitly named, and next steps are confirmed. This might look like:
- “So we’re going with Option B, and Priya will lead the update by Thursday.”
- “To recap: we decided to move forward with X, and we'll revisit Y next week.”
Why it matters: If no one says what was decided, people leave with different assumptions. That creates rework and second-guessing.
Why Teams Miss These Behaviors
Most teams are moving fast, multitasking, or assuming shared understanding that isn’t really there.
Some common breakdowns:
- No one marks when a decision is needed (so nothing happens).
- People begin second-guessing themselves that they might have missed something in the conversation.
- A few people speak, but others stay quiet (and later disagree privately).
- Someone raises a concern, but it gets brushed aside (so they stop speaking up).
- The conversation ends, but no one summarizes the decision (so follow-through suffers).
This all results in slower execution, more rehashing, and lower confidence in (and across) the team.
How to Move from Discussion to Decision
The hardest part of decision-making is knowing when to stop brainstorming and start deciding. Teams can spend valuable time in idea generation, sharing concerns, or exploring possibilities - only to run out of time without making a call. This becomes a problem because no one shifts the team from exploration to commitment.
Here are behavioral indications that it’s time to make a decision:
- The conversation starts to loop, with the same ideas resurfacing in different words.
- Contributions slow down. Energy drops.
- The options on the table are known. The key constraints are clear.
- Team members shift from asking “What else?” to “Should we?”
These are signs that the team has enough information to move forward and that delaying the decision could cost more than making the imperfect call now. When those signals show up, someone needs to shift the team’s behavior. That starts by naming the pivot: “We’ve covered the key considerations. Are we ready to decide?”
This small prompt shifts the group out of discussion mode. From there, clarify what’s actually being decided: “So just to confirm, the choice is between Option A and Option B. Anything missing before we choose?”
Then offer a path to closure. It doesn’t have to be formal. It just has to be clear:
- “Let’s do a quick vote.”
- “Any strong objections to moving forward with A?”
- “Thumbs up if you’re aligned to move ahead.”
Once the decision is made, reinforce the behavior by closing the loop: “Sounds like we’ve decided on Option A. [insert name] will lead, and we’ll regroup Thursday.”
This moment is small, but it matters. Teams that learn to recognize the shift (and act on it) build the muscle to make decisions with more speed, more clarity, and more confidence.
Decisions Aren’t Just Outcomes. They’re Practice.
Successful teams move quickly because they’ve built the muscle of deciding together. That muscle is behavior. And like all behavior, it can be taught, shaped, and improved with effort. Start by assigning one person to act as the “decision guide” for the meeting. Their job isn’t necessarily to make the decision, but to watch for the moment it’s time to shift from discussion to action and to ensure the team clearly names the decision before moving on.
Better decision-making isn’t about better frameworks. It’s about better habits. And that starts with what your team does in the room, one decision at a time.
