When is a decision made?

“I thought we’d decided that I could steal your chips…” — Photo by Claudio Mezzasalma on Unsplash

Last week, in the middle of a discussion with our Made Tech R&D product teams on how we could go about choosing the right problems to solve, one of our Lead Engineers asked an apropos question that gave me pause:

When is a decision made?

My brain’s reaction to this was something like “Duh! that’s when… wait a minute… uhhh“ before I gave an answer that I now cannot remember but was probably a poor one I improvised in the moment.

How do we know a decision, any decision, has been ‘made’?

When someone says so?

When the timer has run out?

When it’s written down somewhere?

When it’s received The Boss’ stamp of approval?

When everyone’s given their consent and signed with their blood?

Hum.

Perhaps it’s easier to think about:

When has a decision clearly NOT been made?

• When the discussion is still going
• When the decision is going to be discussed again at the next meeting
• When someone says “Everyone good with this?”, receives no answer and moves on, assuming that silence means consent
• When some people involved in the decision think it hasn’t been made yet
• When after the decision, a sub-group decides to implement a different option
• When the people who are supposed to implement it are not aware of the decision
• When the decision doesn’t include the actions to implement it
• When the people who need to implement the decision are not committed to it
• When nothing happens to implement the decision

And many more situations we’d all prefer to avoid. But how?

Decision Rules

Sam Kaner has a great definition in his Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making for the point when a decision is made:

The decision point is the point that separates thinking from action. It is the point of authorization for the actions that follow. Discussion happens before the point of decision; Implementation happens after the point of decision.

Kaner explains that people need a clear signal, a decision rule, to tell them that they’ve reached and passed that decision point; Something that answers our Lead Engineer’s question: “When is a decision made?”

The decision rule should be explicitly agreed upon by the group, and the same rule doesn’t need to apply to all decisions. Some rules are more appropriate for certain types of decisions than others:

• Majority vote
• Decision-maker decides after discussion
• Decision-maker decides without discussion
• Consent-based decision making (Proposal > Clarifying questions > Response > Ask for objections > Resolve objections until no objections)
• Unanimous agreement
• “Flip a coin”

These are common decision rules, but a group can come up with their own or combine some of the above to fit their dynamic and the type of decision they’re facing.

For example, here’s a decision rule I recently applied for a decision across our R&D team:

1. Timeboxed discussion
2. The facilitator can decide to pause the discussion whenever the group seems to be converging to an agreement. She/he will then poll the group for agreement. If the poll shows unanimous support, the decision is made. If not, discussion continues.
3. If no decision is reached at the end of the timebox, the decision maker will make the decision offline.

Before we started the discussion, I had designated the facilitator (myself 😁) and the decision maker (our Principal Tech Architect) and explained the rule to the group, who explicitly agreed to it.

And it worked! We made a decision! We made sure to capture it with rationale, considered reservations, and actions to implement it. We broadcasted it to the wider team. And it led to swift implementation.

Poll for Agreement

There you go, hopefully that’s a better answer to the “When is a decision made?” question.

Give it a try: next time you need to make a decision in your team, agree on a decision rule upfront. Let me know how it goes!