Decisions by Consensus
Growing up, I had this notion that I wanted to be #1. I wanted to be responsible for making all the good decisions. I didn’t want any of the responsibility for the bad decisions though. This idea followed me into the work place at least when it came to my field. At the time I graduated, there were only a few handfuls of experts on 3D face recognition. I had build a few 3D scanners and had at least the fundamentals of the face recognition bit.
When I started at DSC, I was used to someone making a decision, but I really liked how much the decisions regarding face recognition were influenced by me. By the time I left, I felt confident I knew how to drive the boat. I wanted a chance to do that, and I felt I was just waiting for my opportunity to shine.
I came out to California, and I got to work. I found the culture very different. Even when I thought I knew the most, I certainly had trouble seeing the bigger picture. The structure at Apple is very much decision by consensus. This means everyone brings their ideas and backing data to the table. Usually in math, there is a clear winner, one thing over something else, but practical experience shows the wise-ones that usually, you don’t ever know the full picture until after the fact.
Decision by consensus doesn’t mean there aren’t decision makers. There are plenty, and they are given all the facts with everyone else. Everyone talks it out in meetings, one-on-ones, and in email, and eventually, the right decision presents itself. The key difference isn’t what is the decision, but rather, what is the decision relative to your viewpoint.
By nature, we are self-centered in our fight for survival, and that usually blinds us for real collaboration. I have no issue when a decision is made that supports my position, but when a decision is made that goes against my position, there’s trouble. For collaboration, there shouldn’t be this trouble. At which point a decision is made, all the opinions should have been shared as well as all the information. So that the decision is an informed decision which should be much easier to respect than an uninformed decision. At that point, I move on as does the team to the next thing.
Part of this is an over-simplication. Decisions are not usually easy. They are hard. They take many weeks or months to get the right data, to run the right experiments, and to slice the data the correct way to be sure that the decision being made is right. It’s exhausting but also the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my work-life.
If you like, follow me on Twitter and YouTube where I post videos of espresso shots on different machines and espresso related stuff. You can also find me on LinkedIn.
Further readings of mine:
Staccato Espresso: Leveling Up Espresso
Coffee Solubility in Espresso: An Initial Study
Espresso Simulation: First Steps in Computer Models
The Tale of the Stolen Espresso Machine
Affordable Coffee Grinders: a Comparison
