In her uproarious memoir, Bossypants, Tina Fey describes the decision to portray Sarah Palin, then an upstart Vice Presidential candidate from Alaska, on Saturday Night Live as one of the most pivotal decisions of her career.

Looking back, we know she decided to do it. But it wasn’t a no-brainer to her, or to Lorne Michaels, SNL’s famed producer. Weighing the options, they made use of an under-appreciated creative tactic:

“We decided not to decide. This is another technique I learned from Lorne. Sometimes if you have a difficult decision to make, just stall until the answer presents itself.”

Sounds a lot like Frank Lloyd Wright, doesn’t it? As spy-turned-researcher Donald MacKinnon illuminated in his landmark study of practical creativity, often what distinguishes “the greats” from the rest is a willingness to not decide… yet. Answers have a tendency to “present themselves” to folks who delay decisions, especially to the ones who expect good ideas to keep coming.

Before you run off procrastinating willy nilly, though, let me give one caution: you must actually care about the problem. If you don’t care, you’re just plain old procrastinating.

Delaying a decision when you care about the outcome, however, is totally different: it’s a proven strategy to court serendipity. Care transforms decisions to not decide into bouts of productive procrastination.

Related: Delay Decisions
Related: Expect Good Ideas to Come Late
Related: Drive Innovation Through Care

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