Punish.
'At an early stage Abbott defined his priorities: securing the site, returning the bodies, an independent inquiry, and punishing the guilty.
Each day his sense of mission is clearer. It is the key to crisis management. Abbott said late yesterday he had but one purpose: "to bring our people home"...'
The unconscious priority of decision makers is often the reverse: finding and punishing the guilty, then finding the information that supports the decision to punish.
Our decision making is influenced by the need to punish more than we realise.
(We don't make decisions - we make 'judgements'.)
Vengeance. Deterrence. Retribution. Justice.
No organisation other than the state can give any of these.
None should behave as if they can.
This subconscious need to punish is also why some won't make a decision.
'Who am I to judge?'
If we're not the decision maker, we project that assumption onto the person who is.
We won't offer information relevant to a decision.
'What if I'm wrong? I don't want to be responsible for what happens to someone else.'
We don't want to lead someone to the hangman's noose.
It's just information.
How do we avoid being distracted by our punishment bias?
Clarity of our Mission. Our Purpose.
Wrapping.
A complaint is information wrapped in the complainant's emotion.
The wrapping must be respectfully separated and put aside amidst the eagerness to get to the gift of information inside.
To decide what that information tells you about your Widget.
It's information.
About.
Your Widget.
A Judgment delivered by the Federal Court yesterday affirmed this, namely:
- The organisation gets to decide how to respond to a complaint - not the complainant
- Labelling a complaint as ‘formal’ or ‘informal’ is irrelevant to how its dealt with
It's information.
About.
Your Widget.
As with any gift-once the information has been handed to the organisation, it's the organisation's to use as it sees fit.
One difference between a complaint and the other information that thuds daily onto a decision maker's desk is it has an owner.
That's a good thing. It's healthy for an organisation to deliver a public performance from time to time of its information management and decision-making.
As long as the decision maker remembers:
The complainant may own the complaint.
The organisation owns the outcome.
Effort.
'What is important is what has consequences.'
- Reinhard K. Sprenger
There was the senior manager who explained that the problem with his organisation was that no-one would make a decision and they wouldn't because they were afraid of the consequences and yet he said that there were no consequences.
Makes perfect sense.
Good decision-making is hard work.
If the hard work has no consequences then it couldn't have been important.
Why bother?
IAW
In Accordance With.
A familiar term to anyone who has served in the military.
IAW Defence Instruction PERS 34-4, I...
IAW Chief of Defence Force Directive, I...
IAW the directions of my Commander, I...
'I am making this decision as the servant of an inanimate, objective, indifferent, neutral pardon-me-and-no-offence-and-I-couldn't-care-less-I've-never-even-met-you-let-along-formed-an-opinion-about-your-mother source of authority.'
Not iaw my ego.
Not iaw my personal Widget.
Not iaw my biases.
Not iaw my instinct.
Not iaw I got out of the left side of the bed today.
Step 2 of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Name the Issue.
One way to do this is to check our decision making authority.
Try drafting an announcement of your decision that begins with:
'In accordance with...'
Answers.
I could tell the knock of a pilot on my office door. The ones who knocked. Most just slipped in and closed the door behind them and sat down and talked.
'I've got a job offer with Qantas,' they would whisper. 'But I've got a ROSO and I want to know how to get out of it. Can I get out of it?'
Military pilots had a Return of Service Obligation. Nine years of Air Force, Navy or Army flying after graduation from Pilot Course. The taxpayers want a return on their million dollar investment in jet fuel and tyres.
'Resign and find out,' was my advice.
The Air Force Act said that an officer could resign at any time and the Governor General had to accept the resignation unless there was a war on or the officer had a ROSO - in which case the Governor-General could choose to say 'No'. Only the Governor-General had that discretion.
'But will they let me out of my ROSO? I've been told that I can't resign if I've got ROSO left.'
'You won't know until you decide to resign.'
Everyone wants the Answer.
The Engineer is asked to answer a bridge. Every passenger in every car, truck and train and every pedestrian on the walkway each day after it is built repeats the question. Each journey brings the Engineer closer to the answer.
The pilot is asked to answer the landing. She finds out along with her passengers as the wheels slam onto the tarmac at the end of the flight.
The lawyer is asked to answer the liability. She learns it along with her client as the judge reads out her verdict at the end of the trial.
Ask a question and get an answer. Yes. No. 27. Liable. So what?
There are no Answers - just Decisions that advance us towards where we want to be.
Only charlatans market Answers.
Theory.
'Whether you think you do or not, you do have a theory of human behaviour. The only choice is in deciding which theory you will use. And the choice is an important one. It will determine how you see people, how you treat them, your assumptions about them - including yourself. It will affect your values, your views about motivation, the quality of your interactions and your leadership.'
- Elliott Jaques
Requisite Organization: A Total System for Effective Managerial Organization
Dr Elliott Jaques was a psychoanalyst by profession. He believed that you don't change organisations by changing people, you change people by changing organisations. Or perhaps you free people to become who they are, by changing organisations.
He had a lot to say about decision making in his book Requisite Organisation. Here is a selection.
'Retrievals and calculations are often confused with decision-making, a confusion which weakens our understanding of true decision-making.'
'All human thinking, and therefore all human work, is a continual and powerful interplay between non-verbal mental processes and the knowledge which we use to direct and focus those processes.'
'The work which you experience as the effort in decision-making is the effort in giving energy and direction to the non-verbal mental processing and bringing or allowing the outcomes into verbalisable awareness, so that they an become part of your knowledge and available for conscious use in problem-solving.'
'Decision-making has to do with human uncertainty:
- It is precisely the uncertainty inherent in human work, the feeling of never being quite sure, that makes you close your eyes and agonise over decisions.
- You do not have all the words, and as you agonise you get hold of raw ideas, clothe them inwards, and dig them from the unverbalised recesses of your mind.
- If you are given tasks of complexity beyond your capability in a role with too long a time-span you become anxious and eventually confused - there is a longer run of uncertainty and more variables than you can cope with.'
'Decision-making and action call for judgement and discretion based upon non-verbal mental work. I term our ability to do this our complexity of mental processing.'
'But never forget, at the actual moment of choice, the choice or decision just gets made, as though on its own, and we become aware of what we have chosen only after we have committed ourselves to some specific particular choice.'
'Skilled knowledge helps to organise and simplify work by enabling a person to carry out parts of a problem-solving activity without having to think about them, thus freeing discretion and judgment which would be otherwise engaged.'
'The important thing is not to confuse the skilled knowledge with the work.
- Skilled knowledge you do not have to think about: work is the part you have to attend to, think about, and make decisions about.
- When you are skilled at touch-typing you no longer have to think about which keys you are seeking - that is automatic: but you do have to think about whatever it is that you are using the typewriter to record.'
'The art of the good society and of the good organisation is to ensure opportunity for the use of their full potential by all of its people.'
'My whole orientation is towards the performance of individuals in carrying out purposeful goal-directed activities.'
'What we all really yearn for is to have work at a level consistent with our current potential and for progression in line with our maturation, and the chance to get the necessary education and training. That is the true democratic dream.'
'What is more, subordinates yearn for someone above them to sit down with them and discuss their careers and opportunities: and this includes not only those with growth in potential ahead of them but also those who know that they have matured to full potential and seek assurance of continued opportunity to work at that level.'
'You have no idea of the positive galvanising effect upon your people of having their intuitive awareness of their own true potential confirmed by understanding managers-once-removed who have been charged with this duty. Indifference is annulled and a flow of creative energy is released.'
'Manifest Organisation: the organisation structure as it is represented on the official organisation chart: at best a very rough approximation to what is actually going on, if you can even make sense of it.
Assumed Organisation: the structure as different people assume it really works; likely to have as many variations as you have people, and produces confusion.
Extant Organisation: the system as it actually functions, as demonstrated by systemic study. It will always be an approximate picture. It requires that you dig in and find who is actually being held acceptable for what, and what authority they are in fact able to exercise in relation to whom and toward what.'
'If you want each and very one of your managers - at all levels and in any and every function - to be able to be held accountable for deciding what outputs each of their immediate subordinates is producing...then you must ensure not only that they have the following minimum authority but also that they have been taught that they have it and have been instructed in how to use it:
- Veto any new appointment
- Decide types of work assignment
- Decide effectiveness appraisal
- Decide removal from role.'
'To ask a manager about specific tasks which she/he assigns to a subordinate comes as an unfamiliar experience for most - and the managers find replying equally strange and awkward until they get used to it.'
'There is a very important point to be noted here, which will save a lot of susbsquent confusion if taken into account.
- Work (and its complexity and difficulty) is not the traversing of known paths.
- The work is to choose pathways or construct new ones, and to adapt them as you encounter unanticipated difficulties in traversing them.
- Obeying known rules and regulations is not work: it does not constitute a problem: deciding how best to obey under particular circumstances may do so, for rules and regulations set boundaries (prescribed limits) within which your choice of pathways is constrained.'
Debate.
The boss is busy. He's important. He's got so many important things to worry about. Meetings to attend. Emails to write. Reports to read. It's unreasonable to expect him to have time to spend consulting with you. Anyway, his matters are lofty and serious. He doesn't have to explain himself to you. You wouldn't understand anyway because it's very complicated. He knows what he's doing because he's the boss. It's serious work being a boss. Don't waste his time and just get your work done so he can do his. The boss is busy.
In mid-1942 Prime Minister Winston Churchill rose to address the House of Commons. The Second World War was in its third year and the British Army was in full retreat in North Africa. The German Afrika Corps was forty miles from Alexandria and eighty from Cairo. Prime Minister Churchill was debating a vote of no confidence in his leadership. He was being accused of allowing the Axis forces of Germany and Japan to conquer and enslave the remaining free world.
Churchill did not use fighting a World War as an excuse for not preparing for and engaging in open debate on his decision making. On the contrary, 'What a remarkable example it has been of the unbridled freedom of our Parliamentary institutions in time of war,' he said.
The boss can't be expected to know everything that's going on. How can he be responsible for something that was done two or three levels below him?
'The question of whether Tobruk could be held or not is difficult and disputable. It is one of those questions which are more easy to decide after the event than before it...But those who are responsible for carrying on the war have no such easy options open. They have to decide beforehand. The decision to hold Tobruk and the dispositions made for that purpose were taken by General Auchinleck, but I should like to say that we, the War Cabinet and our professional advisers, thoroughly agreed with General Auchinleck beforehand, and, although in tactical matters the Commander-in-Chief in any war theatre is supreme and his decision is final, we consider that, if he was wrong, we were wrong too, and I am very ready on behalf of His Majesty's Government to take my full share of responsibility.'
Why can't someone just make a decision? Everything takes so long. There is so much bureaucracy. Ask anyone what needs to be done and they will tell you. The boss is useless.
'Complaint has been made that the newspapers have been full of information of a very rosy character. Several Hon. Members have referred to that in the Debate, and that the Government have declared themselves less fully informed than newspapers...The war correspondents have nothing to do except to collect information, write their despatches and get them through the censor. On the other hand, the generals who are conducting the battle have other preoccupations. They have to fight the enemy.'
The boss wants to be briefed. He wants to have everything run past him. He wants to approve every decision. He wants papers. He wants meetings. He wants pre-meeting meetings. He wants updates. He wants to step in if necessary.
'Although we have always asked that they should keep us informed as much as possible, our policy has been not to worry them but to leave them alone to do their job. Now and then I send messages of encouragement and sometimes a query or a suggestion, but it is absolutely impossible to fight battles from Westminster or Whitehall. The less one interferes the better, and certainly I do not want generals in close battle, and these desert battles are close, prolonged and often peculiarly indeterminate, to burden themselves by writing full stories on matters upon which, in the nature of things, the home Government is not called upon to give any decision...Therefore, the Government are more accurately, but less speedily, less fully and less colourfully informed than the newspapers.'
The boss likes people who work late. Who show how much they care by the number of furrows in their brow.
'Some people assume too readily that, because a Government keeps cool and has steady nerves under reverses, its members do not feel the public misfortunes as keenly as do independent critics. On the contrary, I doubt whether anyone feels greater sorrow or pain than those who are responsible for the general conduct of our affairs.'
The boss wants to know why the plan went wrong.
'Sir, I do not know what actually happened in the fighting of that day. I am only concerned to give the facts to the House, and it is for the House to decide whether these facts result from the faulty central direction of the war, for which of course I take responsibility, or whether they resulted from the terrible hazards and unforeseeable accidents of battle.'
The boss wants to scrutinise every decision. He won't approve anything until he's absolutely certain that it is perfect.
'How do you make a tank? People design it, they argue about it, they plan it and make it, and then you take the tank and test and re-test it. When you have got it absolutely settled you go into production, and only then do you go into production. But we have never been able to indulge in the luxury of that precise and leisurely process. We have had to take it straight off the drawing board and go into full production, and take the chance of the many errors which the construction will show coming out after hundreds and thousands of them have been made.'
The boss has a serious job. He's a serious man making very, very serious and important decisions. Don't mock the boss. He deserves our respect.
'This tank, the A.22, was ordered off the drawing board, and large numbers went into production very quickly. As might be expected, it had many defects and teething troubles, and when these became apparent the tank was appropriately re-christened the "Churchill."'
The boss doesn't like mistakes. He wants the job done right the first time. If not, he'll lay the blame where it belongs. He can't be held responsible for what others do.
'I cannot pretend to form a judgment upon what has happened in this battle. I like commanders on land and sea and in the air to feel that between them and all forms of public criticism the Government stand like a strong bulkhead. They ought to have a fair chance, and more than one chance. Men may make mistakes and learn from their mistakes. Men may have bad luck, and their luck may change. But anyhow you will not get generals to run risks unless they feel they have behind them a strong Government. They will not run risks unless they feel that they need not look over their shoulders or worry about what is happening at home, unless they feel they can concentrate their gaze upon the enemy.'
It's a serious business being a boss. It's no laughing matter. He's engaged in important things.
'I have stuck hard to my blood, toil, tears and sweat, to which I have added muddle and mismanagement...'
The boss acts on instinct. He makes decisions and expects his authority to be carried out. No questions. If something goes wrong, let's spin ourselves out of it. Don't admit anything.
'Nearly all my work has been done in writing, and a complete record exists of all the directions I have given, the inquiries I have made and the telegrams I have drafted. I shall be perfectly content to be judged by them.'
Prejudice.
'In order to put prejudice aside it is first necessary to acknowledge it.'
- Her Honour Judge Braddock SC
The Fourth Step in the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Check for Bias.
Each step in the Good Decision Making process is a forcing function. It compels us to pay attention to information that we might otherwise skip over or overlook or assume.
A good boss has her finger on the pulse. She knows her people. She knows her Widget. She knows the imperfections in each. It is impossible for her to not have an opinion. She could get away like most with making decisions on instinct.
The good boss also knows her own imperfections. The better she gets at decision making, the more conscious she becomes of her fallibility. [A great way to tell a good boss from a boss.]
In her Fourth Step, the good boss pays attention to her thoughts. She may even invite others to listen to her speak them. Has she pre-judged her decision?
[A good boss is a teacher. The Five Steps make visible her thinking for the benefit of others.]
As with the First Step, the Fourth Step allows the decision maker to acknowledge the imperfections that make her human. Her biases that may not serve her Widget.
In doing so, she invites those around her to do likewise. To be themselves.
The flaws that allow her to become who she is - free others to do the same.
The steps to a good decision elevate us - and those around us - beyond the decision. It quickly disappears in the distance as we continue our journey to become who we are.
Inquiry.
'Whether it’s in political parties, juries, or boardrooms, groups of humans tend to make better decisions, and to be better at solving problems, when composed of individuals who see the world differently from each other.
Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be.
Inquiry is a brave act. Risky. It declares 'I Don't Know'.
What boss will admit that? What other things might she not know? Why is she being paid the big bucks if she doesn't know?
Might she not know things that she needs to know for me to know things? I've got a job to do. Where does her not-knowing - leave me?
Not knowing.
Inquiry is a brave act. It levels the power scales. The boss and I are equally ignorant. We learn the new thing together.
The good boss gathers people around her in her inquiry and invites them to tell her she's wrong and encourages me to watch. Brave. [The good boss is a teacher.]
Inquiry implies the boss isn't certain of her footing. She's unsure of the world and needs to know more. She's off balance. Vulnerable to a push from above or below.
Inquiry invites new information that may erase the old. It may call into question everything we assumed. It may even demand that the boss says: 'I was wrong.' Oh dear.
Inquiry is counter to the decisive, busy, brain-in-the-next-meeting, heroic boss.
Thus most bosses don't inquire. [Good bosses are rare.] They pretend to know. They make decisions using instinct. Or delegation (up or down). Or they do nothing and let entropy decide for them. We let them get away with it because he's the boss and we just want a decision - any decision - so that we can plug it into our Widget and have an alibi if the Widget doesn't work and go home and moan about the boss and our life.
A good boss inquires because she is curious. Because she is impatient in her advance towards her Widget which she knows lies beyond the Knowing.
A good boss doesn't decide with power. Or by keeping her workers ignorant. Or by pretending. Or mothering us by protecting us from the scary world of not-knowing.
A good boss knows that I Don't Know might be the three most powerful words in the dictionary.
Or not.
[Let's speak them and see what happens.]
CC.
If your email is about me and I'm not copied in - why not?
If your meeting is about me and I'm not invited - why not?
If the new employee will work with me and I'm not consulted - why not?
If your decision is about me and I'm not heard - why not?
Look at each reason. Now search for any of the following capitalised nouns in your values, codes, policies, mission, speeches, website, LinkedIn page:
Transparent. Committed. Team. Collaborate. Engage. Learn. Accountable. People. Loyal. Inclusive. Serve. Innovative. Creative. Trust. Courage. Excellence.
Integrity.
Leader.
God.
Amend either deed or noun as appropriate.
Or delete 'Integrity'.
Or sack me. [I obviously can't be trusted.]
Or quit. [You can't trust yourself.]
Reality.
The decision maker resolves this by:
Declaration: 'Three'
Coercion: 'It's Three or you're fired.'
Intuition: 'I'll tell you when I think you need to know.'
Exclusion: 'It's not Four.'
Whim: 'It's Three today.'
Submission: 'I checked with the boss and she says Three'.
Delegation: 'HR told me Three.'
Committee: 'The ayes have it - Three.'
Bias: 'I hate Four. It's Three.'
Fear: 'Four is up to something. So Three.'
Psychoanalysis: 'You say Four but Your Myers-Briggs Type says you really think Three so I'm going to say Three.'
Avoidance: 'Let's have an off site team building day to create cross-functional capacity in conversations about numeracy.'
Spite: 'As you counted Three without running it by me first you've left me with no choice other than to put you on a warning'
Omission: 'You choose and I'll see what happens next.'
Clarity.
The Officer Commanding summoned me to his office.
'Explain your legal advice on the Base Swimming Pool matter, please.'
'Defence Instructions allow commanders to authorise civilian use of Defence land or assets only for Defence purposes, Sir. For you to have the power to authorise local non-RAAF families and children to use the Base pool, you have to demonstrate how Defence will benefit from having those civilians coming onto the Base. That's a lot of potential liability on the Commonwealth running around, Sir. There has to be some payoff for Defence to justify inviting that risk.'
The Air Commodore pushed a document across his desk towards me. 'Here are my four reasons for existence as Officer Commanding,' he said.
I picked up the piece of paper. It was the OC - my Boss's - Letter of Appointment as Air Officer Commanding Western Australia from his Boss - the Air Officer Commanding Training Command.
'Read dot point four,' the OC said.
'To develop and maintain positive relationships with the local civilian community,' I read out loud.
'Would you agree that me allowing the locals to use the Base swimming pool would be consistent with the execution of that aim, Legal Officer?' the Air Commodore asked.
Widget clarity is the foundation for good decision making.
A good and patient boss who has the confidence to show his working out is a priceless gift for life.
Going.
'No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.'
- Maya Angelou
Good decision making does not lead you from error.
It does not lead you from conflict.
It does not lead you to the Answer.
It leads you to where you want to be.
It leads you to who you are.
If you turn around and someone is following your steps -
- through error and conflict and with no Answer in sight -
That's Leadership.
Slack.
'One thing I said I could help him with was Leadership. Because I was thrust into that with West Coast.
'And I'll be honest as I have said to him privately...probably not publicly as much as I am about to now...but I probably let him down a few times giving him...probably cutting him too much slack to go home and do all those sorts of things.
'So I don't think I actually helped him. I thought I was doing the right thing by him keeping him happy so he would continue to play football which is...ultimately...I was trying to help the Club.
'But from a Leadership...from a pure Leadership point of view...would I have done that in [his home town of] Melbourne? Well...I would not have had to have done that in Melbourne...to give him a training session off here and there so he could stay back with family and friends back in Melbourne.
'But I thought to keep him happy...to keep him playing happy...I thought that was the most important thing from an early point...
'I went to him and said 'I've probably let you down'.'
- Guy McKenna, Coach of the Gold Coast Suns AFL Team, speaking about Gary Ablett.
The first job of a Leader is to create the Space. Allow people to stretch and become who they are. Whack them if they breach it. Not as discipline or punishment. Not as an exercise in power. Not to diminish the person. To invite them to become as she knows they are.
Evidence that Guy McKenna is a Leader. His humility. His honesty. His measure of himself by his service to others. He doesn't wait to be criticised - to be complained about - for him to proactively admit - 'I failed you. Sorry.'
A month after this interview, Guy McKenna was criticised for allowing Gary Ablett too much freedom leading up to a big game.
The day after the article was published Gary Ablett led in possessions as he captained the Gold Coast Suns to a 40 point win - its first ever - over his former club Geelong.
Simon.
He says: Come Here - so they go There.
He says: Do This - so they do That.
He says: It is Thus - so they say Thus It Is.
He says: Put Money in their Bank - so they say See You Next Week for more He Says.
Be: Creative, productive, innovative, industrious, proactive, engaged, accountable, resilient, loyal, ethical, aligned, happy, autonomous, fearless, motivated, passionate...
No-one moves.
Not without a He Says.
Saying.
Decision-Making is THE act of communication.
What am I saying?
We are the products of our Decision-Making, not our words.
How's that going?
How's the organisation's Decision-Making budget?
Compared to the iDevice budget?
The Marketing one?
Where's Decision-Making in the Staff Development Agenda?
In the Leadership Training?
In the Performance Reviews?
In the Recruitment ads?
In the KPIs?
How do we make right versus right decisions under stress?
How do we integrate what we already know - or think we know - with what we need to discover?
How do we orientate ourselves?
What is the relationship between our problem‐analysis and our Decision‐Making?
What happens when what actually happens does not track with what we assumed?
What awaits us when we look inwards for our moral compass?
What happens when we're wrong?
How do we Make Decisions of Love and Hope?
See.
'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'
- Edmund Burke
See. Name. Point.
See it. See it. See what that person is doing.
Name it. Don't analyse it, judge it, interpret it, filter it, psychoanalyse it, project onto it, condemn it, ignore it.
Point to it. It's over there. It's not in me. It's someone doing a thing. It's not about me. I tell a decision maker the name of what I saw someone else do.
Not a story. A name.
Not what they intended. Not what they were thinking. Not what I was thinking. Not what I wanted it to be. Not what they wanted it to be. Not what I would be intending or thinking if it was me doing the thing.
See. Name. Point.
The Widget is the noun that liberates verbs to bring itself into being.
Agree.
There's banging on the front door of your house where your children are asleep.
'The smoke billowing from your roof is soiling the clothes on my line!' a voice yells.
'Put it in writing,' you yell back. 'And send it to my landlord. She'll let the owner know.'
'No!'
'Well, contact the fire brigade!'
'No!'
You think.
'Would you agree to me passing on your complaint to the fire brigade?' you shout back.
'No. Just stop smoking out my clothes!'
'Would you be happy if I dry cleaned your clothes for you?' you yell.
A van draws up alongside while you're at the traffic lights. The passenger rolls down his window and points at the back of your car.
'Is that a formal or informal gesture about my car?' you say.
The van pulls away as the lights turn green.
'Anonymous!' you mutter under your breath, before accelerating away in a belch of oil smoke and sparks from your dragging muffler.
You catch up to the van at the next set of lights. The passenger repeats the gesture with more animation.
'Vexatious complainant!' you sneer as you raise your middle finger then the volume of the radio.
Organisations pay for opinions - usually called 'feedback' - of customers, clients, employees and random strangers about their Widget.
They hire different people to deter, defend, deflect, delegate, mediate - opinions that are called 'complaints'.
A complaint is information about your Widget from someone who cares enough about their Widget (which may be the same as yours) to give it.
It's your decision - not theirs - serving your Widget - not theirs - as to what you do about it.