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← Bred To Lead

Ep. 029: Decision Paralysis: Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Calls

February 17, 2025·43m

INDECISION IS A DECISION, USUALLY THE WORST ONE At Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, the pediatric heart surgery program saw mortality rates three times the national average while frontline staff raised alarms and leadership delayed. Dr. Jake Tayler Jacobs unpacks what he calls prestige paralysis, the trap where protecting a reputation matters more than solving the problem, and the nearly $43 million in settlements that followed. IN THIS EPISODE • The four causes of decision paralysis: the reputation shield, the data paradox, the expertise trap, and the hierarchical filter • The Love Tour at SIPS and what frontline workers said that administration never reported • The 70% rule, the reversibility test, and setting decision triggers before a crisis • Four kinds of decision debt: operational, cultural, strategic, and trust KEY TAKEAWAY Stop asking whether you should act. Ask what it will cost you not to act, because problems do not age well. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Bred To Lead is powered by SIPS Healthcare Solutions.