Why Anger Derails Decision-Making Teams–And 5 Ways to Fix It

Feelings are running high in America today. A search on Google News for the word “outrage” brings up 4.4 million results. Some are outraged by the actions of President Trump. Others are outraged by the biases of mainstream media. Attuned by their anger, both sides see plenty of proof to support their feelings.

Since emotions are contagious, there’s a bigger chance of running into angry people at work these days, too. And when anger spills over into the workplace, it can cause real damage to team decision making.

Angry leaders are terrible decision makers.

Normally, anger is fairly rare in team decision making at work. According to emotional bias research from the Cloverpop business team decision database, anger only affects about 1 in 50 team decisions in typical business environments. Anger’s little cousin “irritated” is more common, but still affects fewer than 1 in 12 decisions. On the bright side, business decision makers are 10 to 20 times more likely to feel hopeful, interested or curious than they are to feel angry.

Anger isn’t all bad. A little flare of anger or even a whiff of outrage can motivate or energize individual people. But anger drives narrow and short-sighted decision making when this extra energy is put into action. Angry leaders are overeager to act quickly, overconfident in the face of risk, rely too much on stereotypes, reject opposing information, and focus on personal rewards. Angry leaders are decisive but attracted to simplistic, trigger-happy choices.

Get an angry decision-making team together, and all hell breaks loose. Bad decision making is almost guaranteed.

Anger sows discord among teams who might otherwise be trusting and productive because it causes us to dismiss or attack other people’s opinions and narrows our view of the world. As a result, if the leader of the team is angry, then the rest of the team 1) may not listen, 2) probably won’t share opposing views and 3) is unlikely to be heard if they do.

Anger damages team decision making even when everyone is angry together. To paraphrase Tolstoy, every angry person is angry in their own way, so individual team members may be angry about slightly different things. Because anger focuses attention so narrowly, it is harder for angry teams to reconcile or even notice important differences in their rush to take action.

When business teams make decisions without noticing their differences, they can head off in slightly different directions until the weakness of their agreement stretches too thin and something has to give. Because angry people are easily distracted by relatively inconsequential slights, minor differences can block or delay decisions. And when angry groups do manage to act in concert, they may restrict their attention to the most immediate solution to a simple problem, without much regard for the risks involved or the limited scope of their actions. As a result, they may be excitingly successful in the short term, only to be surprised by more serious challenges later on.

All of this also means that anger is a major potential competitive threat. A competitor willing and able to incite anger can effectively paralyze or derail their adversary’s decision making. And because decision making is 95 correlated with business performance, this can have serious consequences for any business team.

Decision-making teams can take these steps to defend against anger.

The best defense against anger is to avoid getting angry in the first place, since it can be hard to stop anger once it affects a leader or infects a team. That’s easier said than done, and works best when companies and teams build decision making systems and habits in advance. Put clear decision making processes in place, using checklists or other decision-making tools. Emphasize the importance of tracking key decision-making metrics, writing down what decisions are made and why, and communicating decisions broadly with the organization. Practice makes perfect.

But when anger happens anyway, here’s what to do:

1. Wait. Don’t make a decision, not yet. Get together with the team and agree to put it off. That will be hard to do, because everyone will be angry and wanting to just DO something. Resist the temptation. Give everyone the day off. Take a walk, pet a dog, grab a coffee, meditate, sleep. Time will give perspective. Sometimes.
2. Write. Neuroscientists have shown that writing down an emotion reduces its intensity, so have every angry, outraged or slightly irritated person literally write down, “I am / We are angry.” Don’t try to justify it, just name it. If that doesn’t bank the fires, add this, “I am / We are over-eager to act, limiting our options, downplaying real risks, blind to important information that will be obvious later, dismissing teammates and eroding their trust, and possibly on the verge of making a regrettable short-sighted decision that will benefit our competitors.” Writing this down is a win-win-win. It will probably work. If the team stays angry, makes a decision anyway, and gets lucky with a good outcome, you’ll feel smart. Or, if you don’t get lucky and the decision craters, it will prompt you to look back and learn from how wrong you were to make an angry decision.
3. Listen. The angrier you are, the harder this will be. But after a little waiting and writing, it just might work. Listen to people on the team who disagree. Consider the decision from their point of view. Listen to people who agree. Question their perspective. This can be hard for teams to do even if they aren’t angry. But think of the extra effort as a great way to put that angry energy to work.
4. Use judo. If you really can’t get yourself and your angry team unstuck, try doing a judo move to feel embarrassed or guilty about your anger, confused or unsure about what to do, worried or stressed about what’s going to happen…those humble feelings are less energizing than anger, but proven to be associated with building team cohesion and driving better team decision making.
5. Undo. Don’t forget, decisions are rarely carved in stone. Put a tickler in your calendar to check in after a week or two, and change course if needed. Time will bring perspective, since the world always has something to say about your decisions.