There’s no such a thing as a linear decision-making process. Some so-called quality gurus will pretend there is a one-to-one relationship between a decision and the time needed to make it. I mean no criticism to them, although I think they pay scant attention to the reality of human cognitive processes.

Decision making involves both external and internal input and output. It requires change, and that process is both a mental and emotional one for most of us.

Although rational processes may frame a decision like a mathematical formula, a pragmatic stringing together of logical elements, emotional processes aren’t so straightforward in their approach. Emotions require time to walk around the decision, to appraise it and react to it—and hence the need to change.

The amount of time needed to assimilate a decision depends, of course, on the decision to be taken, and on the quality and quantity of the change required. But the basic process is always the same: We need time to digest the envisioned change.

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