Of course not….would be the immediate answer. But after spending a fair bit of time with people from all layers of hierarchy this past month, this question has popped back to the top of my mind. It’s not a new one, but one that I feel is always worth a think around as it holds a large opportunity in almost all of the large company clients I have ever worked with.
What makes a great decision?
If you ask different people you would probably get a different answer to this. Sometimes, you need to have all of the facts. Sometimes that’s not possible. Sometimes it has to be a quick thing due to time pressure. I believe there is one common thread though….whenever you make a decision you want it to be a good one. Obviously. So what is a good decision?
There are a number of lists out there that talk to this question but I thought this one was quite useful.
We’ll go down this route for the rest of this conversation…..
Decisions should further the strategic aims, shouldn’t they?
Quite often when a decision has to be made there is a balance to be struck. As we know not all decisions are popular as people will always have their own thoughts and opinions. The guiding principle SHOULD always come back to the company vision and the strategic goals that have been set out to achieve it BUT when this doesn’t quite fit with our own values, agendas, beliefs, ideas we may decide differently.
The same can be said for our team or even the Customer. We may make decisions based on influence from outside groups which may not align fully with the vision and strategic goals. This can be problematic when trying to communicate the reasons for a decision (which is also a good idea), as in the absence of aligning to big goals it can be hard for everyone to understand ‘why’.
Now, I know this is very simplistic but surely the number one aim of any decision is to further the big goals in line with the direction. A decision to take us further away and hinder progress could therefore be framed as the opposite couldn’t it? If the intention of the decision is to move in this direction then that’s a good start, however…
Experience isn’t always helpful in making good decisions
I have seen on many occasions, including those where I’ve done this, where leaders will build in assumptions based on past experience. Sometimes even the illusion of past experience. As someone that is quite intuitive and likely to go on gut feel (this is sometimes a good thing), I can make quick decisions which can sometimes work out but sometimes I could have done with thinking deeper and wider.
It can be a bit like this in a corporate environment, jumping from one meeting to the next and constantly shifting focus. It can feel like decisions need to be made and lots of them otherwise we’re not doing our jobs.
There are a large number of occasions in the world of operations where decisions are made without reality being fully in the equation and in its place ‘assumptions fed by experience’. This happens all of the time and the negative side of this practice is real.
The more you can get the reality of given situations understood and fed into any decision making process, the better equipped you are at making a decision. This is easier said than done, but it’s not impossible. Water companies especially, have a large number of individuals who are the eyes and ears of their networks. They have people connecting directly with Customers in different regions and with actual live assets.
Having this vast resource that is ‘grounded in reality’ is a real gift when deciding what to do next in a large number of operational situations. Creating the conditions for this to happen effectively needs work and if done well can also increase engagement. The big question is….
How well are you leveraging all of this insight back into your day to day decision making?