.png){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
Projects rarely stall from discussion alone. They stall when decisions are delayed. Discover how decision latency quietly erodes momentum.
You’ve probably heard people complain about meetings being the biggest drain on productivity. All those calendars blocked out, agenda items repeating week after week, and teams showing up wondering “Why are we even here?”
Here’s the surprising insight: the biggest time sink in projects often isn’t meetings — it’s waiting for decisions.
Think back to the last project that stalled. Was everything actually blocked on work, or were you just waiting? Maybe the team had completed all the prep, but a key decision was delayed by a VP who wanted to “circle back later.” Or perhaps a department that needed to sign off simply… didn’t.
The work looks green on dashboards and charts. Burndown graphs look fine. But underneath the surface, everything’s on pause. The problem isn’t the lack of progress — it’s the momentum gap while everyone sits around waiting.
Most people don’t track this kind of delay. It doesn’t show up in typical metrics, but it kills motivation faster than any backlog conflict ever could.
Teams will prepare, organise, brief, re-brief, wait… and then repeat. That “dead air” while decisions are pending can stretch into days or even weeks. And once that happens:
Yet, none of this shows up on a typical project status report.
What we’re really talking about is decision latency — the delay between when a choice needs to be made and when someone actually makes it. Teams are staffed, tasks are ready … but without decisions, nothing moves forward.
In many organisations, the cultural default is to defer up the chain of command. That means more waiting, more back-and-forth, and more “just checking in” emails that achieve nothing.
If waiting for decisions is the real culprit, what can we do instead of just complaining about meetings?
Here are a few practical approaches that project pros are using:
Before you even need a decision, get stakeholders ready for it. Share context early and outline clear choices so when the moment arrives there’s no surprise.
If you ask for a decision and don’t get one by a set date, escalate — or at least flag it visibly. Your schedule should show the impact of the delay, not just the task itself.
If possible, give the team the authority to make certain calls without waiting for executive sign-off. Not everything needs to go up the chain.
Don’t just track tasks — track how long tasks are waiting. Once you start measuring it, stakeholders often wake up to the cost of inaction.
Let’s be clear: meetings can absolutely be time-consuming. But if you design meetings to solve decisions — not just talk about plans — they can be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
The real win isn’t fewer meetings. It’s faster decisions and clearer pathways to action.
Facilitating decisions advances delivery. Booking calendars consumes it. Explore how protecting PM bandwidth strengthens project performance.
Daily standups and sprint rituals don’t create agility. When leadership rewards control over learning, Agile becomes theater. Here’s what’s breaking it.
Dashboards, updates, stakeholder requests — not all information moves a project forward. Here’s how PMs filter noise and concentrate attention.
As generative AI automates routine Project Management tasks, a new question emerges: does this commoditize the profession or elevate it?
Incomplete inputs, conflicting systems, late submissions — data rarely behaves as planned. Discover strategies PMs use to protect delivery.
.png)
Polished AI responses can obscure errors and drift from project intent. Discover safeguards to ensure accuracy, accountability, and strategic alignment.
.svg){kind=icon}