Most people think that sparking creativity is all about adding things[1]. They tend to think that the more they add to a particular venture or product or service, the better. More features-sure that will add to the creative element of the offering! More options? Yes, please! That will add choice, which will lead to better outcomes. We tend to associate more with being better. But when it comes to creativity, less is more.
"FOBO, or fear of a better option, is the anxiety that something better will come along, which makes it undesirable to commit to existing choices when making a decision," author and venture capitalist Patrick McGinnis told HuffPost. "This specifically refers to decisions where there are perfectly acceptable options in front of us, yet we struggle to choose just one." McGinnis coined the term FOBO, as well as FOMO, back in 2004 when he was a student at Harvard Business School and wrote an article titled "Social Theory at HBS: McGinnis' Two FOs." He believes that FOBO is "an affliction of abundance." Our on-demand world overwhelms us with seemingly endless choices, thus compelling us to keep all our options open and hedge our bets.
This isn't holiday spirit. It's design and a great lesson in influence. If leaders learned how to design decisions the way December does, they would get clarity, alignment, and speed all year, and not just when the calendar runs out. The idea is simple. When options shrink, focus increases. When criteria are explicit, choices become easier. When time is clear, commitment accelerates. The research backs this up.