Summer 2005

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."

~Harry S. Truman

"In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."

~Theodore Roosevelt

800.987.5582

adventureassoc.com

The Decision Tree

Responsibility and authority must be well-matched. And pushing down responsibility and authority, (and subsequently decisions) is what your role as a manager is all about. One way to help your team make better decisions is by outlining very clear parameters. The Decision Tree is one such tool.

Progress is made when decisions are moved from root to trunk to branch to leaf. As an employee demonstrates a track record of making good decisions in the trunk category, for example, it will be satisfying to both the employee and the person to whom she reports when those decisions can be moved to the branch category.

Leaf Decisions: make the decision. Act on it. Do not report the action you took.

Branch Decisions: make the decision. Act on it. Report the action you took daily, weekly or monthly.

Trunk Decisions: make the decision. Report your decision before you take action.

Root Decisions: make the decision jointly, with input from many people.

These are the decisions that, if poorly made and implemented, could cause major harm to the organization.
The analogy of root, trunk, branch and leaf decisions indicates the degree of potential harm or good to the organization as action is taken at each level.

From "The Decision Tree" from Susan Scott’s book Fierce Conversations.

The Decision-Making Process

First, decide how to decide. There are many decision-making approaches: unilateral with or without input, majority vote, delegating, flipping a coin, consensus... download our matrix that compares the different approaches.

The next step is to include the right people. Who cares? Who knows? Who must agree? How many people is it worth including? Even if you're making this decision on your own with little to no input, it’s still important to consider whom the decision will impact.

Next you have to collect data, research, information, stories, feedback...whatever it takes to make an informed decision. This can be a simple or complex process depending on the scope of the decision.

Step four is to facilitate dialogue. This may sound formal, and in some instances would be a sit-down meeting with interested parties. But it can also be a conversation at a desk, or even an internal conversation in which you play devil’s advocate with yourself.

The fifth step is to measure the support for the decision. In a team environment, you may need a facilitated meeting for this, and if it’s an individual decision, is often just a gut check. You can probably see that you were following these steps unconsciously when you decided which seat to take. The very same process that you follow without conscious thought internally, is what you’ll use with a group in a formal setting.

Depending on the level of support, you’ll either continue the dialogue and later measure any changes in that level of support, or start making assignments.

Step nine is to follow-up on the assignments. A decision is pretty worthless unless it’s implemented.

Finally, we recommend documenting the entire process. Why? Because you may not remember in a week, a month, a year, whatever...your rationale for making that decision. And it can take a while to learn whether a decision was the right one to make. And how many of you have had that feeling of déjà vu in meetings when you’re trying to make a decision?

We’ve found that when organizations have a hard time making decisions, it’s often because people tried to skip steps. Not including the right people creates resistance to change...not including the right data or facilitating dialogue can cause regrets or uninformed decisions to be made. And not following up on assignments can create resentment and destroy trust down the road.