There is an undeniable relationship between the quality and speed of shared and individual decisions and the performance levels of teams and leaders. Decision quality and speed are bottlenecks or accelerators in any team's performance. Decisions that are slow, bad or both can keep even the most talented and resourced teams stuck and learning disabled.
There are all kinds of reasons why decision making can be bad or bogged down. On the surface, we can blame bad leadership, lack of good strategy, not enough accountability (fear) or inadequate structures, At the root is a culture of fear. Fear causes decisions to be made more by assumptions and self-protection. Fear diminishes decision making in weak cultures.
Culture is an often invisible factor in decision making on any level. Culture is how free people feel to interact with initiative, inclusion and integrity (transparency.) In weak cultures, decisions are slow and questioned. In strong cultures, decisions are faster and supported.
In strong cultures, people are smarter and faster together because strong cultures make their decisions smarter and faster.