Analysis paralysis. Navel-gazing. Beating a dead horse. Talking in circles. Spinning our wheels.
Do any of these describe how decision-making feels in your organization? A client recently lamented to me that, in the face of an enormous strategic decision, her organization’s board was talking around the issue repeatedly, never making any progress toward clarity much less toward a course of action. Unfortunately, I think this is all too common.
A lot has been written about decision-making processes and models. Vu Lee has an excellent post about a more inclusive and equitable alternative to traditional top-down decision-making. Bridgespan has an outstanding guide to using RAPID decision-making, a model that focuses on clarifying people’s roles in decision-making so authority is clear. But before your team can effectively employ such models, you must be able to identify and define your decisions.
If spinning wheels and talking in circles are the symptoms, I propose that the diagnosis is a lack of clarity about the decisions in front us. More specifically, our decisions are not framed as answerable questions, so we cannot efficiently or confidently resolve them. Our solution? Unpack decisions into answerable questions and tackle them in a logical sequence.
Step One: Frame decisions as answerable questions.
Strategic decisions and questions often start off as unanswerable. Should we develop this new program? Could we expand our footprint to include new counties? Is merging with that organization a good idea? These questions, as worded, include subjective and “blurry” concepts that require definition. A leadership team or board could talk around these questions for months, or they could methodically unpack the question and tackle it piece by piece.
First, define the criteria that you want to inform your judgement and decision. Yes, we should merge if . . . No, we should not expand unless . . . Starting here ensures that your team is basing their recommendations on a shared set of intentions, priorities, and values. A great tool – you know how I love tools – to help structure this process is a weighted decision matrix. LaPiana’s strategy screen is a specific version of this tool, which we love.
Step Two: Identify smaller decisions or information-gathering that must precede your final decision and tackle them in a logical sequence.
When I would get ahead of myself with worries or “what if’s,” my father used to say, “You can’t make a decision until there’s a decision to make.” Sounds obvious and somewhat circular, but it is so wise. The reason we often talk in circles is because we do not have the information or commitments we need to proceed toward clarity or resolution. We are not at a decision-point yet.
Unpack your decisions to identify what must be determined, chosen, decided, or understood before you can proceed in narrowing down your options or making judgements. A network diagram – a tool from project management – is a great way to sequence and organize the steps in any process, even-decision-making. If your question is Should we develop this new program? and you have said yes, we should, if there’s sufficient need and we have the core competencies to do it, then you might begin by answering How great is the need? and What competencies are required to do it well? I am sure those are things that come up as you are talking in circles and spinning your wheels, but if you write down those sub-questions and sequence them with some go/no-go points along the way (think, “Do not pass go, do not collect $200”), you can feel yourselves making real progress toward clarity, consensus, and a decision.
We will be talking more about this in our virtual workshop on March 5, 2021, Using Data to Inform Leadership Decision-Making: Tools for Uncertain Times. Click here to learn more and to register.