Team Decision Making

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hello, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:05 From time to time, teams will face problems and
• 00:08 during the problem solving process, the team must make decisions.
• 00:12 There are some best practices that can aid a team in the decision making process.
• 00:18 I wanna start this discussion by reviewing the types of decisions that
• 00:22 should be made.
• 00:22 And I'm talking about problem solving decisions affecting team performance,
• 00:27 not what type of pizza we should order for lunch, or the name of the team mascot.
• 00:33 When making a decision, the team and team leader should consider the stability and
• 00:37 reliability of the information they have to set expectations for
• 00:40 what type of decision is appropriate.
• 00:42 What I mean by reliability of the information is whether the team
• 00:46 is dealing with facts or opinions.
• 00:49 It's not to say that opinions are not relevant but
• 00:51 just that facts are less volatile or subject to different interpretations.
• 00:55 And information stability is whether the information, be it fact or
• 00:59 opinion, is fixed or it's still changing in fluid.
• 01:04 When a team is working with fixed facts, make a decision.
• 01:08 There's no reason to delay.
• 01:09 Make the decision and move on and
• 01:11 you don't need to continue to revisit this decision as it is based upon fixed facts.
• 01:17 When the information is opinion based, but the team member's opinions are stable and
• 01:21 are not still changing, then make a preliminary decision on a direction for
• 01:25 the team and move forward.
• 01:28 But in this case you will need to revisit the decision at one point
• 01:31 once facts starts to become available.
• 01:34 This is just to confirm that the opinions were correct.
• 01:37 Sometimes, the team has some limited facts available but
• 01:39 the situation is still fluid and facts are still coming in.
• 01:43 The new facts can change the perception of the problem and the potential solutions.
• 01:47 The best decision to make at this time is to decide on boundaries for
• 01:50 viable solutions.
• 01:52 Based upon the facts that the team has, they can rule out options A, C, and
• 01:56 F, but options B, D, E, and G are still potentially viable.
• 02:01 With this more focused set of options,
• 02:03 now focus the information collection to get a stable set of facts.
• 02:08 Finally, sometimes, there are no facts available and
• 02:10 the team members are not sure what to think - their opinions are also fluid.
• 02:14 In this case, the best decision is just to move forward down any path
• 02:19 in order to start getting some facts and solidifying opinions.
• 02:22 The path will probably be wrong and the decision will need to be updated, but moving
• 02:27 forward to learn more about the problem is far better than deciding to do nothing and
• 02:31 get overrun by the problem.
• 02:33 I will use this matrix with the team when I know that we are not
• 02:37 in the region of fixed facts.
• 02:38 Just to help them set their expectations about the decision, they can understand
• 02:42 that while it might not be a final decision that is being made, the type of
• 02:46 decision will help the team move forward to a final solution to the problem.
• 02:52 Understanding the type of decision is great but
• 02:54 we still need a process to make a decision.
• 02:57 This grid illustrates the typical amount of time and the level of team involvement
• 03:01 associated with the different team decision making approaches.
• 03:05 Generally speaking, the more involvement the team has in the process,
• 03:08 the more buy in and support they have for the decision.
• 03:11 The fastest approach is for
• 03:12 the team leader to make the decision without team input.
• 03:15 While fast, it also has the least amount of team buy in.
• 03:19 Team members rightly feel ignored and irrelevant in the decision.
• 03:23 The next fastest approach is for the team leader to gather input
• 03:27 from several team members usually through individual conversations.
• 03:31 The team leader calls on team members that they trust to who they
• 03:34 believe have relevant information for the decision.
• 03:37 After getting that input, the leader decides.
• 03:40 This approach often gains the support of those who provided input and
• 03:44 if the decision primarily effects them, this can work well.
• 03:48 Continuing along the time scale, the next approach is for the leader to call
• 03:52 the entire team together and ask for everyone's input on the decision.
• 03:57 In the team meeting, team members can provide opposing perspectives to
• 04:00 other people's opinions and a productive debate can occur.
• 04:04 However at some point, the team leader calls a halt to the debate and
• 04:07 then the leader decides, after hearing all sides of the issue.
• 04:10 While the team members all feel that they had a voice,
• 04:12 they may not agree with the team leader's decision and
• 04:14 may feel like they had been manipulated into a decision.
• 04:18 A related approach that takes about the same amount of time is that the leader,
• 04:22 stops the debate and takes a vote on the decision.
• 04:25 Whatever option gets a majority of the vote wins.
• 04:28 While this is less manipulative and
• 04:30 the majority of the team buys into the decision,
• 04:33 the minority may not support the decision and actively work to make it fail.
• 04:38 The approach that will have the most involvement and
• 04:40 buy in is to decide with a team consensus.
• 04:43 But this can take a very long time.
• 04:45 There's probably a time and place for
• 04:47 each of the approaches during the life cycle of a team.
• 04:50 The team leader must decide which approach best fits the circumstances.
• 04:54 Is it more important to make a quick decision or to have full
• 04:56 support in buy in?
• 04:59 So let me show you the approach I use to speed the team along
• 05:02 when choosing to decide by consensus.
• 05:04 First, define the problem or issue, then brainstorm alternatives making sure that
• 05:09 everyone has a chance to contribute to the list of alternatives.
• 05:12 If the list is too long, I'd trim it down to ten or less with a multi-vote process.
• 05:16 Discuss the remaining alternatives, noting the pros and cons of each.
• 05:20 Determine the criteria that should be used to select the best alternative
• 05:24 then do a preliminary vote to see if you have agreement.
• 05:27 If you don't have agreement, ask individuals to discuss their vote and
• 05:30 explain their reasoning.
• 05:32 Vote again to see if you are now closer to agreement.
• 05:35 Discuss again any remaining issues to be certain everyone has had
• 05:38 a chance to be heard.
• 05:39 Based upon the last vote, ask everyone if they can at least support the decision
• 05:43 even though it may not have been their first choice.
• 05:46 If so, you have consensus.
• 05:50 Team decision making can unify a team or destroy it.
• 05:54 As team leader, manage the process well to help the team succeed.

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