Better Decisions, Faster: Why Consensus Slows Your Team | Moment 185 - No Bullsh!t Leadership

Summary4 min read

No Bullsh!t Leadership Podcast

Episode: Better Decisions, Faster: Why Consensus Slows Your Team (Moment 185)

Host: Martin G Moore
Date: August 9, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Martin G Moore tackles the critical role of speed in leadership, particularly in decision-making. Drawing from his experience as a CEO, Moore dismantles the myth that consensus always leads to better outcomes, warning that consensus-driven cultures slow teams down and erode value. He discusses when to prioritize speed over perfection—and when it’s vital to slow down for high-stakes, high-impact decisions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Importance of Speed in Leadership

Speed as a Performance Multiplier:
- Moore emphasizes that if you build speed into your culture, it can dramatically boost performance.
- Quote: "Speed can be a performance multiplier if you can build it into your culture." (00:00)
Setting the Pace as a Leader:
- Leaders establish the tone, pace, and standards for their teams; if you don’t move fast, no one below you will.
- Quote: "No one below you is going to move faster than you do, which is why you have to constantly drive the team forward at a pace that many of your people may find uncomfortable." (00:35)

The Danger of Consensus

Consensus Slows Progress:
- Pursuing consensus can be detrimental—a slow process that erodes value.
- Memorable Analogy: "Consensus is like a cancer. It eats away at value until there's nothing left." (01:27)
- Dead time between meetings and consultations is what truly drags things down, not just the actual time spent deciding.
Quality vs. Speed in Decision-Making:
- Faster decision-making doesn’t necessarily compromise quality if managed right.
- The focus should be on reducing cycle time (the total time from start to completion), not the touch time (actual time spent on the problem).

Excellence Over Perfection

Striving for Excellence:
- Leaders should build cultures that value "excellence over perfection," moving things forward without waiting for perfect alignment or complete certainty.

When Slowing Down Is Necessary

High-Stakes Decisions:
- Not every decision should be rushed—Moore shares a story about his time as CEO of CS Energy, where political uncertainty made major investments too risky.
- Quote: "Trying to make investment decisions on a multi-billion dollar asset is tricky enough, but in a world where the economics of a 40-year investment cycle hinges on the outcome of a four-year election cycle, it's almost impossible to get it right." (03:20)
- Moore's Rule of Thumb: Slow down when the decision materially affects the business's financial position, risk profile, or reputation.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Culture and Pace:
- "You should do everything you can to create a culture of excellence over perfection." (00:47)
On Consensus:
- "Consensus is like a cancer. It eats away at value until there's nothing left." (01:27)
On Real-World Decision-Making:
- "The touch time of these decisions... is only a tiny fraction of the total time taken to make the call, which is the cycle time." (01:50)
Real-Life Example:
- "When I took over as Chief Executive of CS Energy in 2013, energy policy in Australia was a total basket case. Sorry, I just said that like it's different now." (02:44)
Rule of Thumb for Slowing Down:
- "I slow down whenever the outcome might have a material impact on the business’s financial position, risk profile or reputation." (04:08)
Closing Thought:
- "Is speed good? Well, undoubtedly. But there are going to be times when you need to back off, and part of being a great leader is recognising those times." (04:24)

Timestamps for Key Segments

00:00: The power of speed & opening remarks
00:35: The leader sets the tone and pace; why pace matters
01:27: The true cost of consensus
02:44: Case study: CS Energy and the dangers of rushing high-stakes decisions
04:08: Moore’s rule of thumb for knowing when to slow down
04:24: Summing up the balance between speed and caution

Takeaways for Leaders

Cultivate speed as a cultural value, especially in decision-making.
Don’t let the drive for consensus become a roadblock—often, a “good enough” decision is better made fast than a “perfect” decision made late.
Know which decisions justify extra caution—those with high financial, risk, or reputational stakes.
Build teams that are comfortable with discomfort and prepared to move swiftly on most issues.

For further exploration on knowing when to slow down, Martin recommends episode 294: "Is faster always better?"

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Transcript3 lines

[00:00]
A
Speed can be a performance multiplier if you can build it into your culture. In this moment, I show you why speed is so critical and equally why you need to know when to back off and take a breath.
[00:13]
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Welcome to the no Bullshit Leadership Podcast. In a world where knowledge has become a commodity, this podcast is designed to give you something more access to the experience of a successful CEO who has already walked the path. So join your host, Martin Moore, who will unlock and bring to life your own leadership experiences and accelerate your journey to leadership excellence.
[00:36]
A
As a leader, you set the tone, the pace and the standard for your team. And when it comes to pace, you need to know no one below you is going to move faster than you do, which is why you have to constantly drive the team forward at a pace that many of your people may find uncomfortable. In the vast majority of cases, your instinct should tell you to move faster, which is why you should do everything you can to create a culture of excellence over perfection. One area that benefits enormously from increased speed is decision making. As a corporate executive, I focused a huge amount of energy on making better decisions faster. I figured if my team could do that, they would outperform most other teams. Now, the beauty of focusing on faster decision making is you don't have to sacrifice the quality of the outcome in any way. The key to this is reducing cycle time. Many leaders seek the comfort of consensus, but consensus is like a cancer. It eats away at value until there's nothing left. While you're trying to bring everyone along for the journey and get unanimous agreement on opportunity, is squandered. Now, the touch time of these decisions, the time that people are actively working on the problem, is only a tiny fraction of the total time taken to make the call, which is the cycle time. Large meetings and lengthy consultation forums are bad enough, but it's all that dead time in between that grinds your decision making tempo to glacial speed. And besides, reaching consensus isn't all it's cracked up to be. You end up with a decision that everyone can sort of live with, but no one is actually happy with. You can see how passionate I am about prioritising speed over accuracy, but I've been around long enough to realise that not every decision should be made this way. For example, if you're facing a decision where the strategic value swings are high, you need to tap the brakes. When I took over as Chief Executive of CS Energy in 2013, energy policy in Australia was a total basket case. Sorry, I just said that like it's different now. A tax on carbon emissions was in effect, but the leader of the opposition had vowed to remove the tax if he was elected. Now imagine how much this could potentially affect the profitability of a company like CS that owned a fleet of coal fired power stations. Trying to make investment decisions on a multi billion dollar asset is tricky enough, but in a world where the economics of a 40 year investment cycle hinges on the outcome of a four year election cycle, it's almost impossible to get it right. Which is why we decided to put all major investment decisions on hold. Depending on the outcome of the election, any decision we made could turn out to be either a massive windfall or an unmitigated disaster. This is precisely the type of situation that helped me to develop my rule of thumb I slow down whenever the outcome might have a material impact on the business's financial position, risk profile or reputation. So is speed good? Well, undoubtedly. But there are going to be times when you need to back off, and part of being a great leader is recognising those times. If you want to take a deeper dive into slowing down, have a listen to episode 294 of the no Bullshit Leadership podcast. Is faster, Always better? We'll leave a link in the show. Notes. I really hope you enjoyed this moment and that it gives you that extra little spark to be a no Bullshit.