Walking the team decision making tightrope

Wouldn’t it be great if everybody you worked with totally agreed with each other over the approach that should be taken to everything? No passionate debates. No people pulling in different directions. Nobody disappointed that their idea wasn’t taken forward.

I’ve worked in many teams over the years and it’s a utopia I’ve never managed to achieve, and to be honest I’m not sure it really is an ideal state. I can’t think of a single idea I’ve had that hasn’t been improved by input from somebody else.

But making decisions as a group of people can be hard and being responsible for leading a team who are struggling with this can be even harder. Often you get to a state where you just want to stop having the conversations and either issue an edict or drop the whole subject.

Hopefully this article will provide some ideas for approaches and techniques that can be applied to help you walk the tightrope between those extremes.

Decision making styles

One of the first things to recognise is your default style, we all have one, I tend to favour “consultation”, so I’ll put an idea out there, discuss it with the appropriate people and then I’ll make the decision as to what adjustments to make and how to go forward.

There’s also the “consensus” style, this involve iterating over an idea, making adjustments until everybody agrees. A variation on this style is the “majority decision”, essentially you vote on the idea and if most people are in favour you implement it.

Finally, there’s the “autocratic” style — you just make the decision without any input from the team.

You can also delegate the decision to somebody else, with different approaches depending on how involved you want to be in the outcome. This has been covered in detail in the article “How to get more done by doing less”

Which style to use?

None of these styles are wrong in themselves, the art is picking the right style for the right situation. The impact of picking the wrong style can be significant.

There are a few key questions you can ask yourself to help pick the right approach.

1. Do you have access to all the information?

Do you have all the knowledge? Do you have all the expertise? Is support not needed or is it guaranteed?

If the answers to these are “yes” then go ahead and use an autocratic style (though do look at the questions below before doing so). It’s not necessary to gather the whole team to decide where to display a chart on a whiteboard!

Just beware of the unknown unknowns.

2. To what extent is acceptance necessary for successful implementation?

If successful implementation depends on the understanding and acceptance of others, then it will be worth involving them early. If you don’t, you’ll probably pay the price during the implementation.

A good consensus process is where people set aside their egos and personal needs and focus on the goal, it will result in a better decision.

3. How great is the impact of the decision?

As complexity increases there is a greater chance you won’t know everything required to make the decision. As the scale of impact increases so will the need to have buy-in from others. You’ll probably need to be using a consensus or at least consultative style.

4. How urgent is the decision?

Do you have enough time to involve everybody?

If it’s genuinely urgent then an autocratic or possibly a limited consultative style should be used.

But beware, most situations are not as urgent as they seem, and you’ll need to trade off the short-term benefit of the quick decision against the long-term consequences of it. As my mother used to say “act in haste, repent at leisure”

Whichever style you decide to use there will be huge benefits if you communicate your intentions at the start. If people assume they have some form of vote / have to agree to the decision, they can feel misled if they discover later this was not the case. They are also less likely to resent or undermine a decision that doesn’t go the way they wanted if they understand their role in the decision-making process.

Don’t be afraid to change the style if your first approach has not working out, this can most often happen with consensus style, if there’s too much conflict in the team you may have to change to a consultative style. Just be explicit about making that change.

What’s the level of commitment?

Often in groups there are some people who are more vocal than others and it can be hard to judge what the quiet people are thinking; do they agree with the proposal or are they strongly against it?

With the consensus style of decision making it’s important to create an environment where people can accurately express their opinions on any idea, this will help you ensure there is the appropriate level of support for the idea and therefore the implementation will be a lot smoother. Some of these techniques can also be applied when using a consultative style of decision making to gather input and judge the strength of feeling.

Fist of Five

With this technique the question is asked and on the count of 3 all the people hold up their hands showing a number of digits. It’s important that this is done simultaneously to ensure people are not being influenced by others.

• 1 digit: No way, terrible choice, I will not go along with it. A way to block consensus.
• 2 digits: I have some concerns, but maybe we can figure out an option. I’d prefer to resolve the concerns before supporting it.
• 3 digits: I will support the idea, but I’m right in the middle on this one.
• 4 digits: I like this idea, sounds good.
• 5 digits: Absolutely, best idea ever! I’ll champion it.

If you have any people showing 1 or 2 digits, then ask for their reasons and ensure these points are discussed and any adjustments made before voting again.

Take a Stand

With this technique you mark out a line of the floor, with options at either end of the line and ask people to stand on the line, indicating their preference.

Psychologically taking a stand physically is different from saying something.

Dot Vote

This is a quick and easy method to for prioritising or gauging support for a number of options.

Participants are allocated a specific number of votes and vote by placing dots next to the ideas. Options with the most dots win. Different colours can be used to indicates agreement and disagreement.

Idea Rating Sheets

These sheets are useful where multiple options are under consideration and there are many participants. Each option is written on a sheet and participants indicate their opinion by adding a dot to one of the “strong agreement”, “agreement”, “neutral”, “disagreement”, “strong disagreement” or “confusion” categories. They can also add some brief comments on the proposal. Participants should contribute to every sheet which are then later analysed. (get a copy from http://idearatingsheets.org/)

Coloured Cards

• Red: the red card indicates the participants opposition to the proposal at hand (usually a “principled objection”). When a participant uses a red card, it becomes their responsibility to work with the proposer to come up with a solution that works for everyone.
• Yellow: Yellow is used to formally state any reservations to a proposal.
• Green: the green card indicates consent.

After the decision has been made

It’s critical, especially if the process has been fraught with opposing views, to not just assume that everybody will readily embrace the decision. You must keep the momentum going by keeping in touch with the participants, especially those that may have initially disagreed. You may need to reinforce the decision (and the reason why it was taken), they may have additional questions that need answering, if they don’t get answers they may revert to their old ways.