Imagine your group is charged with selecting a hotel for the company’s annual meeting. After some research the group has found three hotels that are available and can handle an event of this size.

Each hotel provided a proposal with answers to all the major questions you might have. Your group must now select one.

Before everyone in the group starts weighing in with an opinion about which hotel would be best, the group should first deal with a more fundamental question, “What’s most important to us in selecting a hotel?”

Answering this question provides the group with decision criteria. The goal in generating criteria is to help each team member evaluate the problem from the same perspective.

In this example, there are many perspectives which might be considered: Cost, convenience of location, image, friendliness of staff, amenities, etc.

The group needs to decide which 2-3 criteria are most important and use them in making the decision. Another way might involve using all the criteria but giving them different weights. Setting up a decision grid, the group could do a little math to get a numerical result that would provide the guidance it needs.

In any decision, there are usually many potential criteria. Just do not try to make a decision without first considering what they are.

Have you ever led a meeting when it seemed the group kept running away from a decision? As the leader, it is your job to help the team recognize and make the decision. Here are five strategies for helping you do so.

Point out the decision point

While it might seem obvious to you, others in the group might not recognize that they have arrived at a decision point. You can help them see this by saying something like, “It looks like we have a decision on the table.” State what you view to be the question, and check with the group to see if they agree.

Clarify the options

Once people agree on the question, your next task is to identify options. Lay out what you view to be the options. Encourage the group to add to the list. It helps to write them on the board, so they are visible to everyone.

Discuss decision criteria

Before choosing, the group should decide what criteria it will use to make its choice. If everyone agrees on the criteria, making the decision becomes a simple exercise in applying the criteria. If participants don’t agree, things get a little trickier.

Allow everyone to have a say

One key to helping the group make the decision is to get them to stop evaluating the options. This point will not come until everyone has had a chance to voice an opinion. Be proactive in asking all group members what they think.

Call for the decision

Eventually, you will sense that everyone has had his or her say. A simple thing you might say to the group at that point is “Are you ready to make the decision?” If you get agreement, ask for everyone’s decision or vote. Use the results to determine what will happen next.

Using these strategies does not guarantee an easy decision, but will at least keep you focused on where you need to be, wrestling with the question.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

What do you measure in your organization?  When it comes to measurement, there are a few simple rules that will help make them more useful.

1.  Measure the stuff that matters.  You went through all the work of setting goals and priorities.  You had a big production about announcing what the organization was going to accomplish this year.  Show people you are serious.  Track progress.  This reinforces that which is most important.  It also helps people know how they are doing.

2.  Respond to the measures.  There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing charts on a wall that show trend lines that nobody looks at or does anything about.  If you’ve made the effort to do the measurement, there’s got to be a clear understanding about how you will use the data.  If you have no intention of doing anything in response to the measures, than don’t waste your time collecting data and producing charts.

3.  Don’t measure stuff that you don’t care about.  This takes time and energy.  It sends a confusing message about what is and isn’t important.  It creates clutter that can cause a team or organization to lose its focus.

Measurements are an important part of any management system.  Make sure yours are working for you and not against you.

When I’m out talking about the benefits of teamwork, it’s common to hear a few objections. One of the challenges I hear most frequently is that teamwork takes too long.

I agree that when you are attempting to consider everyone’s opinion and are working to build consensus, this can and often does slow down the planning process. The thing about measuring time that’s important to remember is that what you designate as the start and stop points matters. To me we shouldn’t be measuring just the planning phase of the project when evaluating teamwork. Rather we should measure planning and implementation together.

When you measure the whole project start to finish , then I’m not sure teamwork does take longer. If teamwork helped you make better decisions about what to do and how to do it, and people were more willing to support the process; then you will have saved some time.

Most people know the old joke about the dangers of making assumptions. And yet we make them every single day.

Here’s a little test. Ask yourself the question “What do I know about my organization?” Now quickly list the first 10 things that come to mind. For each item on the list ask yourself, “How do I know this?” If you can’t answer this question, you are dealing with an assumption that may or may not be true.

Checking out every single assumption would grind life to a screeching halt. Not evaluating any assumptions will lead to many poor decisions.

In our work lives, there has to be a happy middle ground. There are probably some key assumptions that drive your business. Do you know what they are? Have you checked them out lately? If not, consider just one of the most critical assumptions on which your business is based. Imagine a scenario in which the assumption isn’t true. How does the world look now?

1. The pay is pretty good.
2. The benefits are great.
3. It’s close to home.
4. I’m too old to make a change.
5. The economy’s bad, so I should just be lucky to have a job.
6. It’s probably the same anywhere else I might go.
7. I am up to four weeks of vacation.
8. The seniority I’ve gained will protect me from layoffs.
9. I’m not sure what else I should do.
10. It’s been so long since I’ve looked for work, I’m not sure how to do it.
11. I understand the place I’m working at, so it’s easy for me.
12. I may be bored, but I’m comfortable.
13. My family would go crazy if I took a risk and left.
14. {Fill in your favorite excuse here}

Sometimes the reasons we stay are valid and important. Sometimes they are not. There is no sadder tale then that of the worker who’s stayed in a job he’s hated for decades because for reasons that were not true. Imagine all those days, weeks, and months of disappointment, frustration, or boredom. Consider all the co-workers and family members who were affected by this person’s frustration.

When challenged about their lack of action, the person will almost always claim that he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He was stuck. Who believes that? I sure don’t.

Usually the truth is that there were options. The problem was not the lack of choice, but rather the consequences associated with those choices. Some of them can be unpleasant.

The next time you feel like you are stuck and have no choices, go ahead and compile a list of the potentially bad consequences from taking action. But while you are at it,  make a list of the potentially good consequences that may result from your action. And if you need one more thing to throw into the mix, consider the bad consequences associated with doing nothing. These you should be familiar with, since you are already experiencing them.

There are always choices. The right decision involves giving all options a fair evaluation, and then having the courage to choose that which makes the most sense.

All or Nothing

The “all or nothing” approach means that everyone agrees on the “right” answer. If they don’t all agree, the team does nothing. The process is slow and can be quite painful. Since not reaching a decision often feels like failure, the majority pressures the minority to conform so that they can all feel “successful.”

This approach is good when doing nothing is preferable to making the wrong decision. In a capital murder case, all the jurors must agree to a death sentence before it is imposed. The system was created to minimize the chance of killing an innocent person. In business situations, such dramatic circumstances are few and far between, meaning that this approach is seldom a good choice for the team. In those rare situations, this approach might be just the thing that prevents the company from making a “fatal” decision.

Majority Rules

Most people are comfortable with the idea of voting to reach a decision. It’s democratic, expedient, and generally considered to be fair. Unfortunately it doesn’t always produce good results. Since it’s so easy, groups often jump to this method rather than doing the hard work of wrestling with the issues. By giving everyone an equal say in the decision, it discounts expertise. It can also hurt a team’s cohesiveness because after the vote the team is now split into winners and losers. Instead of supporting the decision, the minority usually continues resisting the decision, making implementation difficult or even impossible. Voting is seldom a good approach for a decision that really matters.

It is an excellent choice when the group needs a quick decision and the outcome isn’t going to have any serious consequences. Choosing where to hold the next meeting, narrowing a long list down to the top 3 – 5 options, or selecting food for a company event might be a good decisions for voting. In each situation, making the perfect decision probably isn’t worth the time and energy.

Authority rules

In this approach, the group defers the decision to an authority. This might be the meeting leader, a perceived expert, or anyone else the group thinks could and should make the decision. This approach is quick and painless for the group. The problem is that the authority may not be an expert and end up making a poor decision.
Like the “majority rules” approach, this works well in situations when no one much cares about the outcome. It should also be considered when the issue is strictly personal preference, and one person’s preference is as good as another person’s. Finally, it a great choice when the decision requires expertise the group does not have and a true expert is available.

Consensus

The approach best suited for making most important decisions is consensus. A group has reached consensus when everyone can and will support the decision. This doesn’t mean everybody agrees on the best choice, but they have found a choice they can all support. Consensus promotes hard thinking that really gets at the issues. It’s slow and often painful, but when the group finally reaches consensus, it has developed a solution that will have the support it needs to be implemented. Since consensus requires so much energy, the group should agree that the outcome of the decision is worth the effort. Here are a couple situations that would be ideal for using consensus: 1) Changing the organization’s structure, 2) Developing a strategic plan, 3) Designing a new product. In each situation, people probably do care deeply about the outcome, and their support will be required to successfully implement the decision.
All four of the decision-making approaches can lead the group to a decision. The important thing is matching the approach and the situation. Choosing the right approach will help the group avoid doing the wrong things, speed through decisions that don’t warrant the time, and focus efforts on those decisions that will have the greatest impact on success.