5 Steps for Making Important Decisions
Do you struggle with making decisions? At some point, we all do.
While there are some decisions I find easy, like what to say to start a conversation or my personal policy toward jerks, there are many decisions I find difficult.
They tend to be the ones where the stakes are high, the outcomes aren’t clear cut, and everybody has an opinion. That means there’s likely to be controversy no matter what is decided. And it’s even worse if it will take time to tell whether the decision was a good one or not.
The more senior you become, the more you will be called upon to make tough decisions. So, now is a good time to start preparing yourself for difficult decision making.
Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it’s not always possible to gain consensus on whether a decision is good or bad. But it is possible to ensure that you engage in a strong decision-making process every time you face a big decision.
The Process of Decision-Making
When you’re under pressure to make a tough decision, it’s useful to have a checklist to guide you through the decision-making process.
A leader I respect recently shared with me his five-step process for making important decisions. I’ll be implementing this process for my next big decision and think this process can make a difference for you as well.
1. Who is the decision for?
The first step is to determine who the decision is for. That is, whose perspective do you need to take into account? For whom is it a good decision?
So, think about the key stakeholders. For a corporate executive, it’s the employees, clients and investors. For the Dean of a college, it’s the faculty, staff and students. For parents, it’s their family unit.
Who is your decision for?
2. What does it mean for the future context?
Every time you make a decision, you’re setting a precedent. It’s a data point that stakeholders can point to in the future as they make a case for their own decision making.
While it may be expeditious for a parent to give in to their toddler’s latest temper tantrum, the longer-term consequences can be even worse. Similarly, it pays to give serious thought to future implications of today’s difficult decisions.
3. What are the values involved?
The best compass for making decisions is to base them on values, both yours and the organization’s. It’s useful to get clear on both sets of values before you’re thrown into the deep end on a tricky decision, and to ensure there’s as much alignment as possible. Otherwise, you probably don’t belong in that organization.
4. Who are you bringing into the decision-making process?
It’s tempting to keep the decision-making team a small group of “like-minded” people. While it makes for quicker decisions, you run the risk of falling into the trap of groupthink. And that, in turn, is the foundation for making suboptimal decisions.
Instead, look for contrarians and get their points of view. Just like Abraham Lincoln did.
As the creator of this decision-making process says, make sure you have a group of people you can assemble quickly and provide a safe zone to express their points of view without consequences.
5. Establish collective responsibility
Once you’ve brought in and taken into account a diverse group of viewpoints and had a robust discussion, it is still up to you as the leader to make the final decision.
However, make sure the group you’ve assembled understands that the decision is the group’s collective responsibility. That is, once they walk out of the room, it will be equally their decision and they can’t undermine or complain about it.
The origins of this concept of collective responsibility comes from the well-established parliamentary procedures in the UK. The convention is that members of the Cabinet must support all decisions made behind closed doors in Cabinet even if they don’t agree with them.
Conclusion
The next time you’re faced with a big decision, use these five steps to ensure you’ve used a robust decision-making process. It will also increase the likelihood your decision will stand the test of time as being a great decision.
In the end, the key is to have a good decision-making process that you can communicate and defend to the rest of the world and that will give you confidence in your big decisions.
What are the decisions you struggle with, and which elements of this decision-making process would make the biggest improvements to your decision-making?
Leave a comment and let me know.
What is the best way to handle a department supervisor who is sabotaging your career? I am an adult education clinical medical assistant instructor. I am a master’s student in psychology and I am very intellectual. Having the educational background that I do gives me a different point of view or values, it seems than my manager and her supervisor. Here are a few examples where I have had to make a decision regarding my autonomy as an instructor. Before I tell these, I first need to be clear that not a single person in the administration knows what a clinical medical assistant’s job entails. Truly; the subject has come up time and again during staff meetings where I feel that I have to fight tooth and nail for the inventory and educational material (i.e., current books relevant to insurance coding and even to obtain what’s called SimChart, which simulated the electronic health record programs used in medical offices).
* My manager asks to see my final examinations, which is not a problem, however, often, she wants me to change the wording of my exam questions to ones she thinks are better. I told her that the language in the exam is the same that I use in my lecture and the student will understand the question.
* My manager’s supervisor has asked me what do I want to do with a degree, I’m already over-educated. Yes!, she said that to my face.
The main healthcare programs that are offered at work are Licensed Practical Nursing and Nursing Assistant. Therefore, most of the staff are Registered Nurses, including my manager, an I am the only person with a medical assistant background. My manager speaks to me as if I am less a professional than she is, in a very condescending way. I spoke with her about it, but the behavior continued. I went to her supervisor who blew it off as just misunderstandings. A few on-the-side conversations happened between the supervisor and myself which were completely inappropriate; completely. I was very confused and felt boxed in, so I scheduled a confidential appointment to speak with the director of education (the supervisor’s boss). I explained the on-the-side conversations and I provided copies on the condescending emails that my manager sent to me. The director said that he would speak to both of them and that I didn’t need to fear repercussions.
Additionally, a work order was submitted for some continuing education courses that I needed. These courses have not been scheduled yet, and when I ask about the status I get the “we’re waiting on the paperwork”, the same situation happens when I send my manager a purchase list for supplies. Three months after I sent her the inventory purchase request, my order still had not come in, and I was, again, given the “paperwork” excuse. This is very frustrating because I needed the supplies for the upcoming course material. I had to borrow from the Nursing program to get by until the order came in.
Interestingly, this transpired after the director spoke with them. In the last term, the supervisor began to make changes to my work schedule and assigned general ed classes to a few RNs. Not a problem, however, when I asked the other instructors to please, use the syllabi and course outlines I had prepared, the supervisor to me, in an email, that the instructors were going to use their own syllabi, etc. I dropped in to see the supervisor during lunch and asked if she was displeased with the outcome of the last 2 terms. She said, no that everything looked great. Anyway, I don’t know how I could have made any different decisions, in any of these circumstances. Please, advise.
Warmly,
Erin
Hi Erin – thanks so much for sharing your situation. I’ll come back to you via email shortly.
Best,
May