Winston Churchill once said that “true genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.” He might as well have been describing today’s best teams. They aren’t waiting for perfect clarity, but are learning how to make confident calls in the fog.
Research from Harvard Business Review backs that up. A study by ghSMART found that the most successful leaders make decisions faster and with less complete information than their peers, and as a result are up to 12 times more likely to be high performing.
The same principle applies across great teams. Whether in a boardroom or a project huddle, high performers tend to follow a simple rule of thumb: act when you have between 40 to 70% of the information you wish you had. Less than that, you’re guessing. More than that, you’re probably too late. Translation for the rest of us: if you’re still chasing the perfect spreadsheet before moving on, you’re being too careful.
Today, as markets shift overnight and new AI tools appear faster than most of us can remember our passwords, the best teams don’t wait for 100% clarity. They move when they have enough information to take smart action and enough humility to course-correct fast.
Here’s how top-performing teams are pulling it off:
1. Clarify who owns what
When everyone thinks they’re the pilot, no one’s flying the plane. Strong leaders make sure roles are clear before debate begins. They spell out who owns each part of the work, who will make the calls on each step, who should be consulted, and what input really matters. That can prevent decisions from getting stuck in the “let’s just re-check in with everyone” loop that kills momentum. When the team reaches roughly 70% confidence, everyone already knows who will make the call. The payoff is faster action and fewer missed opportunities.
2. Commit to action
Fast teams don’t skip analysis, but they keep it contained. They set boundaries on how long they will debate and how much data they will collect before deciding. Then they act. Afterward, they review early results and tweak what’s not working. The rhythm is to decide, learn, improve: not wait, worry, and overthink. One executive told me, “We have learned to treat decisions like software releases: launch early, patch often.”
3. Learn from imperfection
When leaders act before they have 70 percent confidence, they will not always be right. High-trust teams expect that. They create psychological safety so people can raise doubts before decisions and talk openly afterward about what worked and what did not. The goal in these debriefs is not to assign blame but to learn. Teams ask each other: “What did we expect? What happened? What will we do differently next time?” They turn mistakes into data. Indian conglomerate Tata Group even institutionalized this mindset with its “Dare to Try” award, which recognizes smart, well-intentioned failures that taught the company something valuable. The message: if you never fail, you are probably not trying hard enough.
The paradox of leadership in 2025 is that while data has never been more available, certainty has never been more elusive. The smartest teams know they cannot analyze their way out of ambiguity; they have to decide their way through it.
So, if you or your team is still waiting for the perfect picture before taking action, try the 40/70 rule. Then make a call and move on.