Let your employees make decisions: even the important ones

This is a video from a lightning talk that I did last year at UX Bristol 2018. In only 5 minutes I explained what the advice process is and why it makes (so much) more sense than traditional decision making processes.

The advice process is something that I came across whilst reading Frederic Laloux’s book ‘Reinventing Organisations’. It’s a fascinating book and I would highly recommend if you wish to free your organisation from traditional ways of working that crush your potential. I couldn’t cover all the great things that Laloux explores in his book so I decided to concentrate on one thing instead:

I chose the advice process because that is probably one of the building blocks if you wish to change your organisation structure. The key points that I cover in my talk are summarised below.

Traditional ways of decision making don’t work:

• Top down: managers making decision means that sometimes they will need to make decisions on things that they are not experts in or not knowing enough about what it involves.
• Consensus: is a lengthy and sometimes impossible process.
• Voting: although is better than the previous two it still asks the opinion of people who are not qualified to make that decision.

Enter the advice process, a new method by which any of your employees can make a decision as long as they follow these simple rules:

• Seek advice from the experts: they know more so start by hearing them out and fully listen.
• Consult the people who will be directly affected by your decision: not everyone might be affected by your idea, it might be restricted to a team or a department, don’t cast your net unnecessarily wide.
• Ponder what you have heard and go for it: you might decide to drop the idea, change it and go through the process again, or you might decide to go for it anyway.

I would also add that is important to create a safe space where all of your organisation feels that they can be brave and if it doesn’t go as planned you will all learn from it and try again instead of simply shutting things down or pointing fingers.

It seems simple enough but it is powerful! Imagine all your employees having access to credit cards, suggest new processes, new tools, new machinery, different ways of working (like our 9 day fortnight). The possibilities are endless.

Want to talk more about the advice process or reinventing your organisation? Drop me a line!