6 Effective Ways to Make a Decision and When to Use Them
It was my first meeting with this team. We’d been talking about what to do next for forty-five minutes. The discussion bounced around several times, while two teammates with strong opinions dominated the conversation. I had trouble getting a word in. All of a sudden, the leader said, “OK, it sounds like we should try out Ethan’s suggestion,” and moved on to the next item.
I found myself thinking, “What just happened? Was that a decision? I thought we were going to vote!” I felt confused, disrespected, and devalued.
Professional, casual, and familial groups, alike, can benefit from being clear on the decision-making process. The first step is realizing that there are many choices in how decisions are made.
What Happens When It's Not Clear How to Decide
My personal experience has shown me that the following paths are common when there is no decision-making rule in place:
The leader takes over when the discussion gets uncomfortable.
The power players make the decision (louder, taller, whiter, male-er).
Meetings go long; discussions drag on.
Some people think a decision was made; others don’t think so.
Quiet members feel unheard and ignored.
Whoever spoke last when the time runs out becomes the decision maker.
The subject gets put off for yet another time.
In order to avoid these awkward and unwanted situations, choosing how to make a decision in advance is incredibly helpful. According to Sam Kaner's Guide to Participatory Decision Making, there are six common ways of making decisions.
Six Effective Ways to Make a Decision
Coin Toss
Leader Decides Without Input
Leader Decides After Input
Majority Vote
Agreement or Consensus
Delegation
Each method has pros and cons. Each has an impact on the culture of the group making the decision, when used routinely. Each has a place and a time to be used, and it’s beneficial to learn how to better use each one.
While learning how to skillfully use each method is always helpful, one vital step often missed is to make sure everyone involved is aware of which decision rule you will use.
How to Choose a Decision-Making Rule
When considering what type of decision-making would work well in your situation, there are several factors to take into account:
The Stakes: What amount of time, energy, and resources are involved? What are the risks to individuals or the reputation of the organization? How important is it to get this decision “right”?
The Importance: How significant is this decision to your mission, vision, and/or values? What will be the impact if it’s not made or not made well? Consider the impact on the relationships involved, depending on the decision-making rule that is chosen.
The Length of Impact: Deciding on what buildings to construct has a much longer-term impact than deciding where to put a tent. Considering how long the decision will be in place necessitates a higher-quality decision.
Decisions that have higher-stakes, are more important, and have longer-impact require more input from the group. This creates higher-quality decisions that have benefited from multiple perspectives. Significantly, it also results in more ownership from those who will implement and be impacted by the decision.
When to Use Each Type of Decision-Making Rule
Please note that each group’s situation and values are different, and the examples shown below may lead to a different decision style for your situation.
Coin Toss
Coin toss is about making a random choice. It’s a quick method, used best in low-risk decisions, with little need for buy-in from the group. Implementation of the decision is generally easy and without the expectation of meaningful resistance. This can literally be done with a coin, or a pair of dice, or in some other way that randomly makes a choice.
Examples:
—Which shirt to wear for the team photo
—Which restaurant to go to for lunch
—A topic to focus on, when they are all equally good
Leader decides without input
This decision type is helpful in two circumstances. First, this type of decision making can be effective when the decision-maker is confident in the information he or she has to make the decision and the decision is mid to low-risk, where buy-in from the group is not essential. When using this decision-making style, you want to know that, if the stakeholders don’t agree with the decision, there is little impact on group dynamics, future work, or morale. The second circumstance that calls for using this style is in a high-stakes, urgent crisis.
Examples:
—Which bank to use for the business account
—What this week’s emphasis should be in one’s personal schedule
—What to do in an urgent crisis (“Leave the building now!”)
Leader decides after input
This decision type is used when the risks are a bit higher. In this case, input from the group helps ensure their cooperation in the implementation of the decision. This is helpful when the decision affects the working or personal lives of the group, when a leader knows the decision could be enhanced by more input, and when the leader feels confused about how to move forward.
Examples:
—The dates of the team retreat
—What needs to be on the upcoming agenda
—The new software staff will need to start using
Majority Vote
A majority vote is also used when there are some risks and the decision needs ownership from the group to have a successful implementation. It is most useful when the speed of making the decision outweighs the quality needed. One of the things to watch out for is that a majority vote can create “winners” and “losers.”
Example:
—The venue just got changed on us. Here are the details of our two options. We need a decision by noon today, so I’ll open for questions for 15 minutes. Next, we’ll have a round of pros and cons, and then we’ll vote.
—We have an hour left in our meeting, and we’ve been looking at these 5 topics, in general, but want to make more progress on at least one of them. I’m not sure which are most important to the group, so you’ll each have 2 votes. You can use those both on one topic or vote for two topics. Please write out your votes in the chatbox, but don’t hit send until I tell you so all the votes come in at once.
—Ideally, we’d have time to come to a consensus on this topic. However, with next week being a vacation week, and knowing you all need to be the ones to carry this out, let’s vote on it. We’ll start by each sharing what our least favorite option is and why, then vote for our favorite. One vote each.
Consensus
This is for high-stakes decisions that are important and have an enduring impact, for which you need high ownership from all the stakeholders. Consensus is the gold standard process. It isn’t used often because, done well, it takes time, and many leaders don’t have the skills to garner the various voices and diversity or navigate the inherent tension of truly participatory decision-making. Sometimes, outside facilitation may be beneficial.
Participatory decision-making is a truly beautiful and unifying process that embraces all the opinions and voices in the room and takes the time to look for both/and inclusive solutions rather than either/or compromises. Questions like these trip people up: “At what point have we actually agreed?” “Is it necessary for everyone to be 100% on board, or can we build consensus toward a bit lower level?”
Examples:
—Changing business/team locations or focus
—Shifts in strategic thrusts
—Whether to invest in a risky or significant financial venture
Delegation
This is not a true decision rule itself. When the leader delegates to another person, that person must then choose between the previous 5 decision styles. There can be a variety of times this might be helpful. However, leaders should keep in mind that, once they delegate a decision, choosing to take it back can have negative consequences on team dynamics and working relationships.
Examples:
—When building new leadership
—When needing to let go of things and trust others’ abilities
—When time doesn’t allow the leader to do her part well
The leader walked in, shared the full agenda for the meeting, and concluded the agenda-setting by repeating the three items that needed a decision. Then he said, “For the first topic, we will take 15 minutes to hear your thoughts. I’ll take those thoughts into account and then decide. On agenda item #2, we’ll begin what will be a several-meeting consensus process so that we have a 90% agreement with everyone being supportive, if not enthusiastic. And for item #3, I’d like us to discuss it, and depending on what we discover, I suspect we will either use a majority vote or a short consensus process. I’ll let you know after our first discussion.”
I released a big sigh of relief.
“Learning how to maximize the positive impact begins with deciding how you will decide.”
Many of our choices have a long-term influence on the future of our work and the outcomes we desire. It’s not only those external outcomes that are influenced . . . it’s also the important relationships between team members and leaders. How we make decisions and when we choose to include or exclude others has an impact on team dynamics. Learning how to maximize the positive impact begins with deciding how you will decide.
Some decisions are easy. Some are hard. All are served by clearly knowing how the decision will be made.
What’s your next decision? How will you make it?
