What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do
(A practical guide for leaders in fast-moving or transforming organisations)
In a scale-up or an organisation in the middle of change, there comes a moment where the pace, pressure or ambiguity catches up with you.
A decision stalls.
A project drifts.
A team hits resistance.
You feel the weight of needing to act — but you’re not sure what the right next step is.
People often assume this is a sign of weakness or inexperience. It isn’t.
It’s usually a sign you’re holding too much information, too many expectations, and too many possible paths at once. Most leaders in high-growth or transformative environments hit this point regularly — they’re just not always willing to say it out loud.
Here’s a more honest way to put it:
“Not knowing what to do next” is normal. Staying stuck there is optional.
This isn’t about big management theories or inspirational frameworks. It’s about small, practical moves that help you get unstuck, reduce noise, and regain enough clarity to act.
Below is a simple, pragmatic approach drawn from design methodology, decision sprints, and coaching practice — but grounded in the everyday reality of leading in messy, shifting environments.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Why this happens (and why it’s not a failure)
In organisations that are growing, merging, adapting, or restructuring, uncertainty isn’t a surprise — it’s part of the operating environment.
Leaders get stuck because:
There are too many competing priorities and no shared sense of what matters most
Expectations shift faster than communication
Information is incomplete, contradictory, or politically sensitive
People look to you for clarity before you have any yourself
The cost of getting it wrong feels high, so you delay
There’s rarely time for proper thinking — everything is urgent
Most importantly, leaders feel they need a perfect answer when the situation only requires a good-enough-for-now next step.
Being stuck is not the problem.
Having no structured way to get unstuck is the problem.
What usually doesn’t help
Getting more opinions
“Thinking about it over the weekend”
Opening a fresh doc called Strategy_v7_FINAL_v3
Pushing it to the next leadership meeting
Delegating the uncertainty to a team that’s already overwhelmed
Waiting for the perfect data
Pretending it’s clearer than it is
Most of these create movement but not progress.
A practical way to move forward — today
(Borrowed from design sprint thinking, decision-making frameworks, and coaching)
You don’t need a workshop, a whiteboard or a week of planning.
You can do this in an hour.
Two, if you’re generous.
1. Name the real challenge
Not the symptom. Not the noise.
The actual thing that’s stuck.
A good test:
If you can’t write the challenge as one sentence, you don’t understand it yet.
Try:
“The challenge is that…”
Keep rewriting until it stops sounding vague.
2. Ask: what’s driving the stuck-ness?
This is where honesty matters.
Is it:
lack of information?
too much information?
fear of consequences?
unclear expectations?
missing alignment with a peer or founder?
team resistance?
something political?
something emotional?
or simply exhaustion?
You don’t need to solve all of these.
But you do need to know which one you’re actually facing.
3. Identify the non-negotiables
What constraints are genuinely fixed?
Budget
Deadline
Legal/compliance boundaries
A stakeholder’s immovable preference
Market conditions
Technical limitations
Most “constraints” are actually preferences.
Separating the real from the imagined frees up surprising space.
4. List the options you do have
Even if they look rough, incomplete or messy.
There are always at least three.
They don’t have to be perfect.
They don’t even have to be good.
You’re just getting the landscape out of your head and onto the page.
5. Ask: what would make each option good enough?
Perfection is paralysing.
“Good enough for now” is liberating.
For each option:
What would make this viable?
What small decision or piece of information would unblock it?
What risk would need to be reduced?
What assumption needs checking?
You’re not picking yet — you’re shaping.
6. Make a provisional decision
Not a forever decision.
A next-step decision.
Say:
“Based on what I know today, the best next move is…”
Leaders often forget this is allowed.
7. Decide how long you’ll commit to this direction before reviewing
This is where momentum comes from.
Examples:
We’ll try this for two weeks
We’ll revisit this after the next customer call
We’ll check back once we have X data
We’ll run this experiment and then reassess
Put a timer on it.
Not knowing becomes temporary instead of permanent.
How to communicate when you’re not completely sure
You don’t need fake confidence.
A good, transparent version sounds like:
“Here’s the challenge we’re solving.
Here’s what we know.
Here’s what we don’t know yet.
Here’s the direction we’re choosing for now, and when we’ll review it.”
This reassures people far more than either silence or bravado.
What you can do right now
(Five steps you can take in the next 30 minutes.)
Write the challenge as a single sentence.
List what’s actually fixed and what isn’t.
Write three possible options, even if one feels impossible.
Choose the “best next step,” not the ultimate solution.
Pick a review point and communicate it clearly.
That’s enough to get moving.
Momentum reduces anxiety.
Clarity builds on itself.
If you’re in a period of transformation, this becomes a rhythm
Leaders in scale-ups and shifting organisations don’t need more frameworks.
They need ways to think clearly under pressure.
The trick is not to remove uncertainty — that’s impossible.
The trick is to build a habit of cutting through it.
Not perfectly.
Just consistently enough to move forward.
Using ChatGPT as a Thinking Partner
Option A — Quick Guide: Use ChatGPT to Work Through This
If you want help putting this into action, you can use ChatGPT as a quick, low-pressure sounding board.
You don’t need to know what to ask — just paste the blog in and say:
“Ask me the questions I need to answer to apply this to my situation.”
Or try:
“Help me define my real challenge — ask me clarifying questions one by one.”
“Challenge my assumptions about this problem.”
“Help me map out the options and what each would involve.”
“Help me take the next step based on what you know so far.”
Treat it like a structured conversation partner — something to get momentum going when you’re stuck.
Option B — Even Shorter Using ChatGPT to take this further
Paste the blog in and ask:
“Ask me the questions I need to answer to apply this to my situation.”
Or:
“Help me define my challenge and what my next step should be.”
If you’re interested in a facilitated Decision Spike to help, you can read more about it here
