Team Decision Making

In the last fourteen years, I've personally had the pleasure to lead hundreds of groups, and one of the most common areas for improvement is in how groups make important decisions.

Making a decision on one's own can be difficult enough, but compound that with other people with different views, biases and information... and of course a more complex decision to be made...and the process can seem overwhelming.

A number of group decisions are made by a vote and a simple majority wins, but this approach to decision-making is problematic. On the surface, this method seems completely sound, but surprisingly often it turns out that decisions made by this method are not well implemented, even by the group that made the decision. Why not?

First, the minority members often feel there was an insufficient period of discussion for them to really get their point of view across; hence they feel misunderstood and sometimes resentful.

Second, the minority members often feel that the voting has created two camps within the group and that these camps are now in a win-lose competition.

In other words, voting creates coalitions, and the preoccupation of the losing coalition is not how to implement what the majority wants, but how to win the next battle.

We propose consensus as one of the preferred group decision-making approaches, and in this issue of THRIVE, we will examine how, when and why to use consensus to make your team more effective.

Remember, work is an adventure...be prepared!

Ed Tilley
President
Adventure Associates, Inc.