When I work with my clients on any type of project, whether it's selection of a new system or improving data management within the organization, I always emphasize one thing: When we make decisions, we want to make them with eyes wide open.

What I mean is this: Any decision that is made, including decisions to NOT do something, are made intentionally. That is, we've weighed the pros and cons of a given decision, and we've affirmatively agreed to take one path over another.

The alternative, which I've seen happen far too often, is to allow things to happen by default. That is, no discussion of a particular issue is held, or if it is held, no decision is made. (Note that NOT deciding is different than deciding NOT to.) The result is that the default path leads the association to somewhere they don't want to be.

A simple example: an association has multiple steps in their membership join process. Staff feels like there are too many steps and this is suppressing join rates. Even after discussions, no decision is made (either to change the process or keep the current one), and so, by default, the current process continues. Not changing the process may have been the "correct" decision, but it should be made affirmatively, not by default.

So when you're making decisions about anything, even if it is to not change what you're discussing, you should state that affirmatively ("We're going to continue with the status quo") so that everyone knows a decision was made, not avoided.