Somewhere.
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll - 'Alice in Wonderland'
A good decision is one that advances me towards where I want to be.
Do I know where I want to be:
- In one second (while you're yelling at me)?
- In ten minutes (after you've stormed out)?
- In six hours (after I've read your complaint)?
- Next week (after my boss has read your complaint)?
- In six months (when my performance review is due)?
- In a year (when my daughter asks 'What do you do at work, Daddy?')
- In thirty years (when I'm dying)?
- In 200 years (when my great-great-great-great gand-daughter is researching the Family Tree)?
My boss can answer the first five.
(A good boss cares about six, seven and eight because she cares about one to five.)
Emotion may excuse the answers to one and eight.
Good decision making will answer the rest.
Loud.
Following the Five Steps to a Good Decision is thinking out loud.
It's teaching.
Leaving a trail that others may choose to follow - or not.
Communication.
We grow up to the sound of cheers and boos.
Parents affirm our good behaviour and correct the bad.
Teachers grade our work.
Coaches urge us on and post our scores.
Peers select and reject us.
Employers do the same.
Right up until we give payroll our bank details and pull our chair into our desk and log on.
Then the stands fall silent.
'There's a lack of communication here,' we say.
'I don't get any feedback.'
'Not so much as a 'Thank You'.'
(As we transfer money from our savings account to our mortgage account.)
It's time to grow up.
When the Boss says nothing she's saying:
'I trust you to do the work.'
On pay day she's saying:
'Thank you.'
Trust.
'People do not have to love each other, or even like each other, to work together effectively. But they do have to trust each other in order to do so. Trust between people is the basic social glue: suspicion and mistrust are the prime enemies of reasonable human relationships.'
- Dr Elliott Jacques, 'Requisite Organization'.
A witness in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was asked why he didn't act on a report by one of his staff.
'Because I didn't think that I had enough information to act upon,' was the essence of his explanation.
'If you had witnessed the behaviour yourself, would you have acted upon it?'
'Yes,' he replied.
Here was a rare glimpse into the dirty little secret of almost every organisation and the root cause of their dysfunction.
Bosses won't delegate decision making power because no-one else has the skill to see and interpret information and act upon it as effectively as they can. They're the Boss, after all.
Workers who have delegated decision making power but don't use it because they assume their boss must have a superior understanding of the same information. They're the Boss, after all.
If we fail to act on information given to us by another in the same way that we would if we had first hand knowledge of that information, we declare:
'I don't trust you.'
In which case cancel the off-site team building exercises, Myers-Briggs Tests, Christmas party, external consultant reviews, coaching, values statements, and staff surveys.
And spend the savings on the glue in Payroll to retain the untrusted people who remain to service their mortgages, and to hire the extra managers needed to supervise them.
Knowing.
Peggy: Did you park your white horse outside? Spare me the suspense and tell me what your Save the Day Plan is.
Don: I don't have anything yet. The idea I had wasn't great.
Peggy: It wasn't great. It was terrible. Now I want to hear the real one. Or are you just going to pull it out during the presentation?
Don: This idea is good. I think we can get the client to buy it.
Peggy: No you don't. Or you wouldn't have questioned it.
Don: I'm going to do whatever you say.
Peggy: So you're going to pitch the hell out of my shitty idea and I'm going to fail?
Don: Peggy, I'm here to help you do whatever you want to do.
Peggy: Well how am I supposed to know?
Don: That's a tough one.
Peggy: You love this.
Don: Not really. I want you to feel good about what you're doing but you'll never know. That's just the job.
Peggy: What's the job?
Don: Living in the "Not knowing".
Peggy: You know I wouldn't have argued if it was me. I would have just given you a hundred ideas and never questioned why. You really want to help me? Show me how you think. Do it out loud.
Don: You can't tell people what they want. It has to be what you want.
Peggy: Well I want to go to the movies.
Don: Whenever I'm really unsure of an idea, first I abuse the people whose help I need. And then I take a nap.
Peggy: Done.
Don: Then I start at the beginning again. And see if I end up in the same place.
- Mad Men - Series 7 'The Strategy'.
Subversion.
'A leader engages in this task of constructive subversion. What they subvert is unthinking custom and practice. A leader will not accept that things are merely done because everybody does it, because that's just the way that we do things around here.
But they're not seeking to impose some kind of idiosyncratic view of their own on the organisation. They're not trying to bring it down. It's constructive because the job of leadership is to help the organisation become more like the thing it says it wants to be.
But to do this requires extraordinary moral courage. It's really, really hard.
Can you imagine what your colleagues are going to do? Some might say it's fantastic. A lot are going to say 'Sorry, just get out of the way and let us get on with it. We know what we're doing.' And there will be your peer group who will be pretty annoyed with some of you who do it because if you start doing it then they might have to start doing it and that's going to be a burden.
Resource constrained. Time constrained. 'We're just trying to cope and you want us to do this as well?'
And there will be superiors who will get pretty annoyed from time to time that you have asked the difficult question that if had just been left unasked it would have made life more bearable.
Yet that is not leadership.
If you're going to lead. If you volunteer for the task. This is the sort of thing in which you're going to have to engage.'
- Dr Simon Longstaff, Director of the St James Ethics Centre
Judgement
The New York Times published an interview with Ron Kaplan, the CEO of Trex, a manufacturer of outdoor decks on 'Making Judgements Instead of Decisions'.
It's an opinion on the difference between decision making and judgement.
'To this day, I find I’m most effective as a leader by facilitating other people talking.'
'When people speak, you measure the variance between what they tell you is going to happen and what actually happens. The smaller the variance, the greater the credibility.'
'Decision-making usually is the dissection of facts to come to a conclusion. Coming to a judgment really has to do with the issues of luck, character and probability.'
Tolerance.
'What we don't realise is how much of our feelings, our actions, our beliefs are coming from our unconscious mind and I think that when we raise our consciousness about our unconscious, you're knowing yourself better. And to know yourself better I think is a good thing. You understand how you're going to react and you understand why you did things and you just have more understanding for yourself. So it not only helps you make better decisions economically, but it helps you make better decisions spiritually because you have in a way more tolerance for yourself as well as more understanding.'
- Leonard Mlodinow, Physicist.
Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances us towards where we want to be.
I pay attention to my thinking.
I see the world as it is and not as I presumed it to be.
I learn about you.
I learn about me.
Five.
The fifth of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Offer a Hearing.
Step 1 is to Step Back.
Step 2 is to Name the Issue.
Step 3 is to Assess the Information.
Step 4 is to Check for Bias.
If you believe that your decision is likely to adversely affect any person, you should allow that person to be heard.
A 'hearing' is simply:
- Informing the person of the information that you have about them.
- Informing them that it may require you to make a decision that may be adverse to their interests or expectations.
- Inviting them to respond to the information and explain to you why you should not make an adverse finding.
A 'hearing' may be a simple as a short conversation, an email or letter.
If the person doesn't accept your offer, you simply make the decision based upon the information that you have.
The ‘Show Cause’ is the best example of the Hearing step in action. It says:
‘I’m thinking of doing X as a result of Y facts and Z policy. I’m inviting you to give me reasons why I should not do X by the close of business on Date. I will consider your reasons before making my decision.'
There are five benefits of the Hearing Step:
- It allows the person with the most at stake to put forward information that can ensure that you are aware of the most personally damaging outcomes of your decision, and assess them accordingly.
- It allows the person to feel involved in their own fate and that you value them enough to engage with them.
- It has echoes of the ‘listening’ in Step 1.
- It is another opportunity for you to Step Back.
- It is one of the most important elements of Natural Justice.
If the person responds, genuinely consider and reflect upon the information that they have given you.
Remain focussed on the relevance of the information to your Widget.
They may tell you about their illness, their lost cat, their 37 years of faithful service, their passion for their job...
Don’t engage with any of these topics if they have nothing to do with your Widget.
Don’t seek to rebut or refute or correct in your response. Simply say:
‘Thank you for taking the time to write those 73 pages in response to my invitation for you to give me reasons why I should not move your desk. I have given all of your submissions my consideration, and after taking them into account, together with Policy X and Report Y, I have decided to move you to the position near the window.’
And you might add: ‘I am sorry to hear about your cat and I can understand how its absence has proved stressful for you. I invite you to take advantage of our Employee Assistance Programme and will approve any reasonable leave that you may require to do so.’
The five steps allow someone to tell us their story and for us to listen.
Our brains love stories.
Mess.
'[The BBC gave us] total freedom. They gave us the freedom to mess up which is the best freedom you can have.
For our first series we made our own mistakes. We made lots of mistakes and we realised the control you had to have to get better - the things we needed to change and appreciate...and we were allowed a second series.'
A good boss anchors the straining tension of paying her workers to build and break and build her Widget.
It takes intelligence, confidence, wisdom, patience, resilience, judgement, and humility to be that kind of boss.
Good bosses are rare.
Workers who are grown up enough to choose the anxiety that comes with the freedom of making their own mistakes - and to change and get better - and thus be worthy of such bosses - are also rare.
Most settle into the comfort and security of the tepid disgruntlement of being told what to do in return for the salary that funds their refuge in their Weekend Widget.
The emphasis on leadership and management in workplaces reinforces a message that Someone Else is responsible.
Someone Else is controlling us and therefore our mistakes.
The They will tell us when and how to get better.
The They will Manage and even Drive Change.
We are free to choose the boss that we deserve.
If.
If I write a good job description for you.
If I write a good job ad for you.
If I write good questions for your job interview and write down the ones you ask back.
If I write to your last boss and ask her if you make good Widgets.
If I write a good employment contract for you.
If I write good policies for you.
If I teach you a good job induction.
If I teach you about my Widget.
If I teach you how your Widget fits into my Widget.
If I teach you with feedback and a pay cheque.
If I get out of your way.
If I Do all of this for everyone who you rely on to help you to Do your job.
If - after you Do it - I say:
Thank you.
If I keep Doing for you all I said that I would Do.
I'd have done my job.
And you'll go on Doing yours.
You don't need to be managed or led.
You just need to be left to Do.
We don't need more leaders or managers.
We need more Writers and Teachers.
We need more Doers.
Need.
We don't need more leaders.
(Too many people leading and an organisation will break.)
One Leader is enough.
We don't need more managers.
(People don't like being managed.)
We need people who follow a deliberate process of inquiry that advances them towards where the Leader wants them to be.
We need Good Decision Makers.
Four.
The fourth of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Check for Bias.
A good decision is one that advances us towards where we want to be.
Bias can distract us from our Widget in two ways:
- From brains wired to drown out rational thought by screaming 'RUN!' or 'KILL IT!' in response to new information.
- From egos that put our Weekend Widget ahead of our boss's Widget.
The first Three Steps to a Good Decision often quell the screaming in its more sophisticated 21st century workplace manifestations.
The second is mostly tackled in long and overly complicated policies around 'conflicts of interest.'
The easiest way to detect whether we have this kind of bias is to ask ourselves:
‘Am I able to apply my mind to the information and assess its merits and exercise my discretion unhindered by any personal investment in its outcome?’
If you do feel personally invested, you need to tell your boss and let her decide whether you should refer the decision to someone else.
After all, she's paying you to build her Widget.
![[Inspired by Hugh McCleod's 'Value Curve'.]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/501409fee4b00a22f5c6f17b/1398091255969-JSVXG701FCJL0M8YJAZC/Good+Decision+Making.jpg)
Three.
'Intelligence is the ability to recognise a better argument than your own.'
- Anonymous
The third of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Assess the information.
‘Investigation’ has sinister, negative overtones.
‘We’re carrying out an investigation.’
‘We’re being investigated.’
These all imply that someone has done something wrong.
Yet no decision should be made without gathering as much information as we can – ie investigating.
An investigation can be as simple as a telephone call, a conversation, reading a policy, an email asking questions, seeking expert advice – or as detailed as a royal commission.
What information do you need to decide what to do?
What information do you need to make your Widget?
What is important is the attitude that you take to the gathering of information.
Be curious.
Take the position of the ‘naïve inquirer’.
Seek the advice of experts, more experienced people, policies and procedures.
Be inquisitorial not adversarial.
Aim to learn rather than blame.
Two.
The second of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Name the Issue.
The commonest mistake in every decision making level of every organisation is to ignore our Widget.
(Hence the importance of Widget clarity.)
A Good Decision is one that advances us towards where we want to be - ie our Widget.
In Step 1, we purged our emotions so that we could make a decision using external information and not internal emotion.
In Step 2, we need to ask ourselves: ‘What is the Issue?’
We need to sift through all the information that we have and identify what it tells us about our Widget.
The answer is the Issue.
There are a number of tools that we can use to name the Issue:
- How does this information affect my Widget?
- What law, policy, procedure, rule, promise, value or other undertaking am I responsible for that requires me to act on this information?
- Do I have the authority to act on the information?
- What action does my Integrity (doing what I said I was going to do) demand of me in response to this information?
If there is no clear statement about whether you have the authority to make a decision, you could rely on the principle of Subsidiarity:
‘It is a fundamental principle of social philosophy, fixed and unchangeable, that one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they can accomplish by their own enterprise and/or industry.’
- Pope Pius XI
Don't be distracted or bound by what someone else tells you is the issue because they're defining it against their Widget - not yours.
A third party usually doesn’t get to decide what the Issue is. You do.
Because it’s your Widget.
You are in the job presumably because you have the experience, expertise and authority to make decisions about your Widget that serve the organisation’s Widget.
If the information does not affect your Widget, either pass it on to someone whose Widget may benefit from it, or…proceed to Step 3.
One.
'Creativity is caring enough to keep thinking about something until you find the simplest way to do it.'
- Tim Cook
The first of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Step Back.
The information hits our desk.
Surprise, anger, annoyance, frustration, disbelief, hurt, delight, indignation, suspicion, confusion, amusement, alarm, despair.
We are human. We have emotions fed by thousands of years of evolution.
Stop. Breathe.
The first step to a good decision is to not make one.
Be selfish for as long as it takes to be able to focus on serving your Boss - or someone else.
Allow yourself the time to be honest and submit to your weaknesses.
Surrender your story of Busy Manager, Heroic Leader, Decisive Boss, Overworked Supervisor, Indispensable Assistant. Martyr.
Lean back in your chair and wallow in how unfair life is.
Ring, email or text a colleague or friend with a whinge.
Go home and vent to your spouse or tropical fish.
Recline with a glass of wine or seven.
Go for a run.
Browse Seek.com.
Do whatever it takes to admit and indulge your authentic selfish feelings.
Allow the chemicals to recede and perspective to emerge.
We die to that person who wanted to run or fight.
We step back into ourselves so that we can become who we are.
We return to the Decision and our Widget and the person who our boss is paying us to be.
If we don’t retreat into ourselves to be ourselves, then we risk tangling our ego with our decision.
We risk a conflict between who we are, and who our boss wants us to be.
By surrendering to our selfishness – if for only a few minutes – we are better equipped to be selfless.
There are studies that show that we cannot focus on the other if we're pre-occupied with ourselves.
Some remarkable, unforeseen, positive, creative things can happen in that space that cannot happen in the largely rational, logical process that follows.
Allowing this space isn’t easy amidst the largely self-imposed pressure to be ‘decisive’.
Like any skill, doing nothing takes practice.
But doesn’t creating space and taking time over a decision risk appearing not to care? Appear not to be taking the decision seriously, especially by others who are relying on it?
By slowing down and giving the decision time and attention you're investing more in it and are more likely to care more about it.
If you care about something you're more likely to do a better job.
The more important a decision, the longer it should take.
Don't reply to the email. Don't pick up the phone. Don't summon the staff member. Don't interrupt. Don't pretend to be someone you're not.
Because then you're only adding another person to the fight.
Step 1 - Step Back.
Breathe.
