4 Ways to Improve Your Team’s Decision-Making Habits [@LeadershipNow]

When you improve your team's decision-making habits, more of the right stuff gets done faster

My article at LeadershipNow was published a few days ago and I’m on my usual “let’s make better decisions together” beat in it. When we get decision-making right, so much just flows — and when decisions get stuck, everything else does, too. (Except for the requests to join crutch meetings because it’s not clear what to do.)

In this article, I resurface the idea that decision-making is emotional and social.

1. Recognize that decision-making isn’t just social—it’s emotional.

In teams, decision-making is about far more than gathering round to go over options and get to a pick. It’s also an emotional undertaking that involves the values, fears, and aspirations of the people making the decisions.

Recognizing that emotional component can help your team appreciate why some decisions may be harder to make and act on than others. It also cultivates a decision-making environment where everyone in the team feels heard and respected and where people’s individual insights or skill sets are considered to make the best possible decisions.

If your team has been grappling with a decision even though all the “facts” seem to be on the table, it’s likely because there are emotional and social facts that aren’t being addressed. Sometimes those facts are keeping the decision from being made and, sometimes, they can be enrolled to help make the decision.

For instance, knowing that your team is scared to make the call on something because it may not work out, regardless of what the spreadsheets say, helps you avoid adding YetAnotherTab - the data itself won’t help build the team’s courage to leap into the unknown.

Or it might be that you have a set of near-tied choices, but one of those choices excites your team more than others. That fact may be enough to break the tie.

Consider a decision your team is on the fence about. If you add in social and emotional information, does it make it clearer which way to go?