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...'
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.
Observed.
'For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts.'
- Bruce Schneier
The Leader begins by creating the Space. She invites others into the Space to become who they are. She assumes that they will make mistakes. Get things wrong. Fail.
The Leader doesn't respond with regulation. The opposite. She ultimately Retreats - leaving us to do our work. To make more mistakes. To continue becoming.
Her faith in us mostly doesn't end well in the measure of the world. We fear freedom. Getting it wrong. We don't know what to do. No-one has taught us. We want to be told. We want someone to blame for our choices. For our unhappiness.
We feel threatened when observed. [I'm not trusted.'] We feel threatened when unobserved. ['I don't get any feedback or gratitude.']
Eventually the Leader is replaced by a manager. He tells us what to do. He checks and corrects. We chafe and share our grievances with each other during our designated breaks and are secretly grateful that we are no longer responsible for our unhappiness.
Constantly fearful.
Longing for Leadership.
Advocate.
"The real hell of life is everyone has his reasons."
- Jean Renoir
The Premier of Western Australia Mr Colin Barnett has not supported a push to remove one of his party members who continues to criticise his government, including calling for Mr Barnett to resign.
Another example of a leader who is on top of his game.
Allowing a critic to remain within the ranks is the sign of a confident leader. And not because of her ego blinding her to the criticism.
The good leader knows that there is wisdom in testing arguments and positions inside the tent before they are released into the wild.
As Dr Tim McDonald says: 'Private honesty. Public loyalty.'
Mr Barnett's accommodation of a dissenting view is also his compliment to the community he serves. He assumes of us what he is demonstrating himself: the maturity to accept that difference is not to be feared.
Mr Barnett is not afraid that the voting public may assume that his party's internal dissent calls into question the ability of his government to run our hospitals and schools and keep our streets safe.
This is what leaders do. They create a space that invites us in to see the version of ourselves that we want to become. 'See?' Mr Barnett says to us. 'I can run an entire State amidst criticism from one of my own. I'm not fleeing. I'm not fighting. I'm smiling. Try it in your own family, workplace, community.'
Very, very few people or organisations can do this. Basically, we don't know how. We don't have the skills. We haven't practised accommodating dissonance. We actively discourage dissent - often quashing it under cover of a breach of 'values' or 'code of conduct'. We drive the our critics to the fringes - until they have to scream so loudly that any merit in their shouted message is dismissed with labels such as 'vexatious'.
If you want to test the maturity and confidence of an organisation or person - say 'complaint'.
Mature people and organisations will seek out dissenters to join their decision making process to kick the tyres.
If they can't find such a critic, they will appoint one. The 'devil's advocate' was someone appointed by the Catholic Church to argue against the canonisation of a person into sainthood.
The mature organisation knows that a dissenter is one of the ways to avoid the trap of groupthink.
The critic - whether internal or external - demands that we explain ourselves - rather than just declare, or even be satisfied by giving reasons for a decision.
A recent study showed that people who were asked to give reasons for an opinion remained convinced of its rightness. While other people who were asked to give a step by step explanation of how they arrived at their opinion were more likely to recognise an error in their thinking and start reviewing their assumptions.
(Herein lies the value of the Five Steps to a Good Decision.)
Therein also lies both the solution and the problem.
Better to cling on to the flawed certainty of our understanding of the world than to expose ourselves to the panic of finding out that we've been wrong.
It's a rare person who can accommodate the distraction in time and energy of a critic.
Which is why we need leaders like Mr Barnett who have the confidence to show us that whether we label it criticism, dissent, disloyalty, or even treason, it's just information.
Another opportunity for us to measure how we're going with our Widget.
Good leaders are rare.
Important.
'It's only in our decisions that we are important.'
- Sartre
Next time you're bored in a meeting, try this.
A Decision will be made.
It can be now. In a few seconds. Later today. Tomorrow. Next year.
One absolute certainty is that a Decision will be made. (Even by default.)
You don't know what the decision will be - you know there will be one. Thus it's almost irrelevant.
Use this certainty as a reference point to work out who are the managers and who are the leaders in the meeting.
The managers will be the ones assembling their dot points for their post-mortem speeches in case the Decision goes wrong. (Most likely to be delivered in hushed tones and with eye rolls in the tea room. 'I tried to tell them that....but they...')
The leader will be holding the space. (She may not be the person at the head of the table by the way.)
She's allowing for the Five Steps - the deliberate process of inquiry - to run its course.
She knows that if she makes a decision that advances her towards where she wants to be - that she cannot make a bad decision.
Her wisdom about the answer liberates her to focus on others.
Watch the leader bravely hold the space. She listens. Asks questions. Listens. Questions. Listens. Listens.
Listens.
Watch the managers and others compete to fling the most words, statements, fears, challenges, complaints, criticisms, and egos within and against the boundaries of that safe space being held for them by the leader.
Spot the manager promoted one or more steps above his competence. You can tell him by his confident assertions. His aim is to declare his opinion rather than to allow it to be tested by the evidence. (That would be too risky.) He wants to be seen as decisive. Sure. Stable. Knowledgeable. Courageous. He does so with the luxury of knowing that he doesn't have to make the decision.
The real bravery in the room is in the leader. Risking being seen as weak. Indecisive. Uncommunicative. As she's talked over. As she holds the space. As she listens.
As she serves everyone else.
Including you. Learning from her as you watch, safe in the space she's created for you. (Guess what - she knows you're watching.)
Regardless of whether it's her decision that is made or followed, she's a leader. Because she created the space and invited you to enter and become who you are.
Allowed you to advance towards your Widget on the way to building hers.
Decisions don't make us important.
The Deciding does.
[Never spotted a leader in a meeting? Of course not. Good leaders are rare.]
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.
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'.
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.
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.
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.
Confidence.
'Once you surrender the idea of intrinsic, objective value, you start asking the question “if the value isn’t in there, where does it come from?” It’s obviously from the transaction: it’s the product of the quality of a relationship between me, the observer, and something else. So how is that relationship stimulated, enriched, given value? By creating an atmosphere of confidence where I am ready to engage with and perhaps surrender to the world it suggests.'
- Brian Eno
The information thuds onto our desk.
It lies there. Inanimate. Markings on paper. Pixels on glass.
We breathe in - and exhale our spirit into it.
We give it life.
We name it:
Complaint. Criticism. Appeal. Escalation. Grievance. Demand.
Or we name it:
Feedback. Evaluation. Comment. Test. Observation. Assessment. Question. Gift.
The actions that we take in response to the information and its relationship to our Widget are what gives it value. We need to engage with it with the eagerness and curiosity that serve our Widget - not our ego.
We need to be brave enough to surrender our understanding of the world for a new one.
If we are all these things - then we invite more thuds upon our desks.
Competing.
'In review tribunal proceedings there is no necessary conflict between the interests of the applicant and of the government agency. Tribunals and other administrative decision making processes are not intended to identify the winner from two competing parties. The public interest `wins' just as much as the successful applicant because correct or preferable decision making contributes, through its normative effect, to correct and fair administration and to the jurisprudence and policy in the particular area.'
- Managing Justice: A Review of the Federal Civil Justice System.
The complaint arrives.
Step 1: Step Back and feel the offence, indignation, anger, fear, fatigue or betrayal well up inside you - then allow seconds, minutes, hours, days for it to ebb away. [I'm human.]
Step 2:What's my Widget and what does this complaint teach me about it? ['The first job of a leader is to define reality.']
Step 3: Do I seek other information to help me to learn about this complaint and my Widget?
Step 4: Is there anything clouding my vision about how this complaint serves my Widget? ['A leader serves.']
Step 5: Is there anyone who might be affected by a decision I may make?
Thank you complainant for testing my Widget. ['The last job of a leader is to say 'Thank you.'']
It's rare to find anyone with this wisdom.
Because Leaders are rare.
Our Justice System is precious.
Quiet.
We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see,
it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer,
perhaps even a fiercer life because of our quiet.
- William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight
A Leader makes decisions that others choose to follow.
They follow a better version of themselves they glimpse in the Leader.
Leaders are Quiet.
Stream.
'Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.'
W.H. Murray
Start with the Widget.
Save your energy arguing Widget Thinking is dehumanising for more creative battles ahead .
(Yawn.)
Remember - the Widget doesn't care.
Surrender to the cool, indifference of it. Accept its objectivity. A gift from your boss.
Make good decisions and feel Providence stir.
Promise.
'We've just listened to you explain how you went about doing what you did,' the Plaintiff's barrister asks the Respondent Promise Maker in cross-examination.
In courts and tribunals today, the same exchange will occur in some form.
'Yes,' the Promiser answers.
'Can I ask you to look at this document?'
'Yes.'
'Do you recognise it?'
'Yes. It's the Contract of Employment/Agreement/Thing I Promised To Do.'
'I'll take you through your Promise and make you say out loud the things you Promised to do'
'I'll then take you through the laws that you also Promised to follow by virtue of being a citizen'
'I'll call five witnesses to produce forty two documents that will prove what you actually did.
'I'll then summarise in excruciating detail the gap between your Promise and what you did.'
Sit in the public gallery or read any transcript or reasons for judgment online, and this is the story arc that will almost always unfold. A journey from Expectation to Reality.
In the year that I asked more than 500 new employees at each induction session how many had read their employment agreement - the Promises made between them and their employer - only one said that they had. Among those new staff would have been new managers.
When organisational conflict arises we call HR to show them the pieces of Promises we've laid out and they show us the picture on the lid as we nod and smile and tell ourselves they match.
Good decision making is honouring our Promises.