I’ve been on a “blogs about decision making” roll lately, so I thought it might be good to offer a word of balance. Depending on your circumstances, spending money can be the right way to go as I mentioned in my last post, but I had a valuable revelation recently.
I was walking into the office one morning and thinking about a situation I was navigating with one of our team members. It was a fairly simple thing but was potentially going to cost about $500 depending on how we went forward. $500 may or may not be a lot of money depending on your total budget, but it was a “Spend or Don’t Spend” decision that I thought merited consideration.
As I weighed the questions, I determined that the spend option would be investing in a tangible asset that would have long-term value for the team, and it would help multiple team members be more efficient. And then I had an idea; there was a chance, albeit remote, that we might have an alternate solution in storage that didn’t cost money. I asked my team member to check it out before we made the final decision. Turns out there were no alternatives so we will be investing, but I still contend there was value in taking a few minutes to consider and check things out. Just so you know, I’m not talking about a long deliberation (google the words “analysis paralysis” to keep you on track here); I’m talking about an intentional few minutes to consider alternatives. When I’m rushing along in the flow of business, I don’t always take time to explore options, and some decisions don’t require it. When needed though, it can be a valuable thing to do. In any situation, we may need to spend money but there is often something we can or should do first. Check with someone, pray over the situation, think about it differently, ask for a volunteer or a donor to help with the need, etc.
I am committed to making the spend decision when it’s needed but I’m convinced it shouldn’t be my first go-to.