Empower Your Team to Decide: The 20 Idea Method for Faster, Smarter Decisions

High-powered tech executives and engineers often find themselves caught in the weeds of decision-making. To scale up leadership, we need to delegate decision-making. My client, we'll call him Tom, was the head engineer in a fast-growing tech company and was no exception. He had a talented team of 30 people, but their hesitance to take decisive action was holding the company back and holding the completion of a critical, time-sensitive project.

Tom put it bluntly:

“When people hit a challenge, they stop and wait for me.”
“I have 30-40 people asking for updates, but I don’t have time to answer them all.”
“Some of them work differently than I would, but that’s more of a preference issue.”

The bigger issue was clear: Tom’s team lacked confidence in decision-making. This hesitance created bottlenecks, stalled progress, and left Tom feeling like the sole driver of organizational momentum. Something had to change. Tom had to get better at delegating decision-making.

At ViDA we know that values are at the core of excellent decisions for business, for life and leadership. When backed with aligned team values, the processes below drive uncanny results for leaders looking to delegate decisions.

Enter the 20 Idea Method, a simple yet powerful tool to unlock creativity, build confidence, and drive action.

What is the 20 Idea Method?

The 20 Idea Method, originally developed by Earl Nightingale and popularized by Brian Tracy, is a structured problem-solving approach. It’s simple:

Identify a specific problem. Write it at the top of a blank sheet of paper.
Generate 20 ideas. Brainstorm at least 20 solutions without judging or censoring them.
Select and act. Pick the best idea and implement it immediately.

According to Tracy, this method has helped more people achieve success than any other creative thinking technique. Why? It forces you to think beyond the obvious and uncover fresh, innovative solutions.

Implementing the 20 Idea Method in a Tech Company

Tom introduced the method during his team’s weekly strategy meetings. Each department head brought a pressing problem to the table and followed these steps:

Define the Problem: For example, “How do we reduce customer onboarding time by 25%?”
Brainstorm Solutions: With the team, they listed 20 ideas, ranging from automating training modules to restructuring the onboarding process.
Prioritize and Act: They chose the most actionable idea—creating a streamlined customer welcome kit—and implemented it immediately.

At first, the process felt awkward. “Twenty ideas?!” someone exclaimed during the first meeting. But as the team pushed past the obvious answers, creative solutions began to flow.

Addressing Tom’s Challenges with the 20 Idea Method

This approach transformed the way Tom’s team handled uncertainty and decision-making:

Tackling Uncertainty Paralysis: When leaders hesitated, Tom asked them to list 20 solutions. It shifted their mindset from “What if I fail?” to “What else can I try?”
Identifying Skill Gaps: The brainstorming process often revealed missing skills or knowledge areas, which Tom used to create targeted training plans.
Improving Communication: Teams used the method to identify and streamline processes for sharing updates, reducing Tom’s involvement in minor decisions.

The Results

Within three months, Tom’s team saw a dramatic shift:

Decision-making accelerated. Issues that used to stall progress were resolved quickly.
Confidence increased. Leaders felt empowered to take action without waiting for Tom’s approval.
Collaboration improved. The team developed a culture of creative problem-solving, where every idea was valued.

Tom even applied the method to his own leadership: “I used the 20 Idea Method to brainstorm how to free up 10 hours in my week. The answer? A better CRM and delegating my inbox management.”

Why the 20 Idea Method Works

This method thrives on three key principles:

Abundance Thinking: By forcing yourself to generate 20 ideas, you tap into deeper levels of creativity and resourcefulness.
Action Orientation: The focus on implementation ensures that ideas don’t remain theoretical.
Empowerment: It shifts the responsibility for problem-solving to the individual or team, fostering ownership and independence.

The 5 Why Method: Uncovering Root Causes

Another tool Tom implemented to empower his team was the 5 Why Method, a simple yet effective technique to identify the root cause of any problem. Popularized by Toyota in its manufacturing process, this method involves asking “why” five times (or as many times as necessary) to dig deeper into the underlying cause of an issue.

How It Works:

Identify the Problem: Start with a clear statement of the issue.
Ask Why: For each answer, ask “why” again to peel back the layers of the problem.
Stop at the Root: Once you uncover the root cause, focus on solving that rather than treating the symptoms.

Example in Action:

When Tom’s team faced delays in product delivery, they used the 5 Why Method:

Why is the delivery delayed? The product wasn’t ready on time.
Why wasn’t it ready on time? The production schedule slipped.
Why did the schedule slip? We didn’t have the necessary materials.
Why didn’t we have the materials? The supplier didn’t deliver on time.
Why didn’t the supplier deliver on time? We didn’t communicate the updated order deadline.

The root cause? Poor communication with the supplier. The team implemented an automated notification system to ensure timely updates, preventing future delays.

Why the 5 Why Method Worked for Tom

Clarity: It moved the team away from blame and toward actionable solutions.
Focus: By identifying the root cause, they avoided wasting time on surface-level fixes.
Empowerment: The process trained team members to think critically and independently when tackling challenges.

If you’re stuck, start writing. If you’re not getting the answers you need, ask better questions. Are you training your team to start with “5 whys?” Or maybe the 20 Idea Method might just be the team-unlocking breakthrough you’ve been waiting for.

What problem will you solve today?

"The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire, not things we fear."