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Need a Team Decision-Making Framework?

decision making meetings Jul 21, 2021

It’s time to make a decision and you know you don’t have all the information you need. The decision impacts a broad range of people, and you are going to need some buy-in from others to execute on any of the options you choose.

This situation calls for a meeting … and not just any old meeting. This meeting is going to need to be guided well or it could go all over the place and you could end up making an uninformed unilateral decision just to avoid the chaos. So, how do we tackle a meeting like this?

Let’s start by defining what kind of decision making process you need. Then, a framework for how to guide your meeting!

Who needs to be involved in the decision?

How decisions get made and who needs to be involved is one of the questions every leader wrestles with. Sometimes leaders need to just make the decision. Other times a leader’s role is discerning who to involve and how to get the decision made. 

The continuum of options in the image above offers criteria for deciding who to involve in decisions. Think of a project or a decision that needs to be made. For example, if a leader notices a program is not meeting goals as expected, she may be tempted to make a unilateral decision. But, is she the best person to do so? Step back before making a decision and assess where this decision falls on the “Choose Your Decision Making Process”. Who really has the information and insight to influence this decision? If others on the team are executing the program, then they are likely closer to that information a leader needs. If there is another person directing the program, he may be able to offer nuances to the decision based on personnel, participants or industry best practices. All that information and insight the leader doesn’t have makes the decision more complex.

When a robust decision for more complex situations is called for, that’s a decision that lands in the "Team Decides Together" bubble. When facilitated well, this middle bubble decision addresses potential problems before they happen and creates buy-in for those who must execute on it. 

What's Next:

Once you have figured out that your decision lands in this bubble, bring your group together to share information, offer their perspectives and collectively move toward a decision. 

Next week, we will discuss how to design and facilitate your decision making meeting with a three part framework ... Discover, Discuss, Decide ... to design a meeting that gets you to the team decision you need. 

Need to design your meeting sooner? Set up a FREE 30 minute strategy session and we can get started today.

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