HBX Management Essentials on Decision Making Process

A good decision-making process has the following:

• Quality. It involves careful, rigorous analysis of the problem and a thoughtful comparison of the options.
• Executability. It creates collective buy-in and increases the odds that the decision will be executed well.
• Timeliness. It is neither too early nor too late.⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)
  
  

Pay attention to the mindset during the decision making process: the default is usually ydvocacy, but you need to aim for inquiry

Remember that consensus is a method of decision making, but not the only way to make decisions. It also has some tradeoffs:

With consensus, there are strong, implicit pressures to agree. Hard questions, divisive issues, and minority views tend not to be welcome⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)

My answer is: the three C’s. By cultivating diverse perspectives (constructive conflict), giving real weight to all the viewpoints on the team (consideration), and balancing tolerance for open participation with a willingness to close off the conversation (closure), a manager and her team will make good decisions the norm rather than the exception.⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)

Decision Making Checklist:

• Were multiple alternatives considered?
• Were assumptions tested against data?
• Were dissent and debate actively encouraged?
• Was the process perceived to be fair?
• Were both divergent and convergent thingking used at the right stages and at the right balance?⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)
  
  

Aim for a fair process:

Some elements of fairness are pretty obvious. For example, in a fair process, you have a voice –a chance to speak up and express your views (as long as they’re relevant). In an unfair one, you don’t–or somebody else doesn’t. 

Beyond that, in a fair process, you feel you actually have a shot at influencing the outcome. In an unfair one, the outcome seems pre-ordained. The process is a sham.

Fair processes are also transparent; that is, whether or not you agree with the final decision, you understand why and how it was made. (For example, even if you aren’t happy about who won a Presidential election, you know that the votes were counted and then the Electoral College votes were added up and that’s why the winner won.) Decisions seem unfair if you don’t really know how, in the end, they were made. (Imagine, for example, an election in which you vote and the next day a winner is announced, but nothing is revealed about who got how many votes.) ⊕ (Fuller and Garvin n.d.)