How can you involve every team member in the decision making process?

This assessment allows you to formulate a plan of what direction and what involvement you need before a decision is made. Remember that without involvement at some level, you may not get buy-in from all stakeholders. What you may get is 'compliance' and that doesn't always allow for ideation and creativity.

One of great skills i learned is create physcological safety for team & stakeholder. Meeting becomming a platform to exchange opinions not a forum to show off or win argement. Decision making is the most influential activity on growth of business. By providing safe enviroment & open mind you take the best decisions.

it starts with inclusive culture, if not there; then do not expect involvement. Clearly communicate the importance of involving everyone, defining objectives, and providing necessary information. Utilize brainstorming sessions, small group discussions, and technology to gather input. Encourage individual contributions, rotate decision roles, and appreciate every team member's input. After decisions, review the process and outcomes, aiming for continuous improvement. This approach ensures each team member feels valued and heard, fostering a collaborative environment and ultimately leading to better, more well-rounded decisions.

In my experience, it takes time to build a team to do this, I use the 10 point process; Trust Respect Explain Commitment Collaboration Goals Evaluate Monitor Feedback Praise

In my experience, involving every member in decision making, especially in large, hierarchical and dispersed teams is a continuous process. Team leaders need to develop awareness of those needs of the team which enable them to work effectively. e.g., input, time, support and team building opportunities. This knowledge may be used by the team leader in cases where everyone cannot be directly consulted (e.g. time constraint or sensitivity of discussion) The key is to create a team which is motivated to work towards the common goal. The team leader can then be assured that every input from the team will be for the greater common goal. Methods of team involvement discussed in this article may be considered as appropriate for the situation.

When you need your team to think about something, I recommend following a methodology or technique. I see great benefits coming from Six Thinking Hats. And it can be adapted to different mediums. It adds the structure needed to manage team contribution, especially for remote teams. For a more strategic situation where you want to understand how all your employees feel, an employee survey works well. We do this to understand how employees feel about the company culture and topics like diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging. It's the cornerstone for us to start working on a DEI strategy, policy, or plan. We couple this with townhall meetings and events like World Cafés, where we select a few questions to be discussed in small groups.

Personally, I appreciate using an online tool like a Jam Board to collect the thoughts and ideas of the whole team. After that, I utilize a weighted system to evaluate which recommendation or viewpoint is more valuable to the group. I can use this information to include their thoughts into my deliberations with higher-ups.

Selecting the right method is pivotal. ?? Surveys gather broad input, brainstorming fuels creativity, while voting systems prioritize options. ??? Tools like SurveyMonkey or Miro enable these processes remotely, ensuring everyone's voice is heard, fostering a democratic and engaging decision-making environment. ??

In addition to the on-line tools, the team can be broken into small strategic teams to consider different aspects of the decision to be taken and come up with their recommendations. This will then be deliberated upon by management to help reach a holistic decision. The advantage of this method is that it management a broader perspective of issues at stake, allows individuals within a group to air their views, encourages bottom-up decision making process, solidify the team and give a sense of belonging as well as help in building up the team for future management positions.

Survey for Understanding Team Sentiment: Conducting employee surveys to understand team perspectives on company culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion. These insights guide the development of a robust DEI strategy. Interactive Forums for Diverse Discourse: Employing interactive meetings , where insightful questions are discussed in small groups, enriching the decision-making process with diverse perspectives. Team Segmentation for Holistic Decisions: Organizing the team into strategic clusters, assigning decision facets to each. fostering a bottom-up decision-making culture and team development. Enhanced Collaboration through Online Tools: Leveraging online collaboration tools like Jam Board to capture team thoughts effectively.

Effective communication is essential for proper understanding of corporate objectives and attainment of the overall goals. This should be simple enough, easy to understand and without ambiguities.

I think clear communication is nothing more than trust and giving honest feedback in the direction of business goals. When trust is the foundation, team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas and concerns openly. This transparent dialogue nurtures an environment where collective intelligence thrives, ultimately propelling the team towards achieving common business objectives. Honesty in communication, even when delivering critical feedback, builds trust and fosters growth, steering the team in the right direction.

As others have pointed out, string communication is truly foundational to any leadership position and any given effort. If we want our team/colleagues to share their ideas and opinions, we need to start by showing them why their opinions matter and where they fit into the larger organization and short term/long term strategies for success, however we choose to define it. When people understand where they fit, the internal motivation to contribute often rises on its own, resulting in others bringing you their thoughts when needed without even having to be asked. The second piece to this puzzle is, when your team does provide their input, we need to communicate back. Tell them why it was valuable and how you were able to use it!

Open communication helps to foster a blameless culture, where people are encouraged to share their ideas, ask questions and embrace the idea of “I don’t know”. Learning, sharing and understanding within a silo is often a waste of time and effort. We can create more value by having conversations in ‘public’ instead of behind closed doors. Communicating openly does not mean yelling your ideas over the top of everyone. Embracing and opt-in communication style, people have the option to choose to ignore the discussion if it doesn’t interest them, or even to prioritise it and perhaps read through it later at their convenience. Communicating effectively means using the tools properly to minimise noise and the cognitive load of others.

One thing I’ve found useful is to communicate openly and clearly. It gives room for transparency within teams. It bridges the silos within teams and makes collaboration easier from top to bottom and vice and versa.

As a leader it is your job to hire people smarter than you and get out of their way. Removing obstacles for them to accomplish the company’s goals becomes your full time job.

Early in my management career I felt responsible for coming up with new ideas. As I gained experience I realized that I'm not not the one who has to come up with the best ideas. However, as a CEO, I do have to ensure that ideas see the light of day and I do have to ensure that ideas are pressure tested. So don't get too detail-oriented, but dare to let go and test ideas that aren't yours with an open mind. The craziest ideas (according to your early assessment ??) might often prove to be the best ones. Simply by being open about that insight and our expectation of shared responsibility for generating and testing ideas - ownership & accountability and motivation & satisfaction rises quickly.

To empower, in the real sense is also to trust. In my experience when you empower and not trust, the empowerment is fake. I feel better when senior leadership trust based on good work, to empower us to do perform the role.

While it is good to "delegate tasks and responsibilities according to their skills and preferences", I will add that it is also important to challenge them when you see potential beyond their existing skills, so that they can develop new ones. I had a team member responsible for administration who was sharp and always willing to learn. I decided to challenge her by giving a technical task with support and guidance that she can do in between her administrative work. Whatever decisions had to be made on that particular assignment, I worked through it with her. You have to let people know that you believe in them and trust them to do the work, they will put in the extra effort.

A few thoughts about empowering and supporting your team: ?? Be authentically curious. Inviting others to share is not enough. You have to demonstrate that you truly want to know their perspective. ?? Create the safe conditions for sharing. Team members must know they have the space to share, without judgement. ?? Be open to be influenced. You have to role model your openness to receive feedback, your openness to be influenced by others.

I've always found it extremely helpful to be vulnerable with your team members. This builds strong trust and allows you to ensure you always hear the truth from your team - what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

Evaluation of what has worked well and what could be improved will provide insights about 'precision' when trying to improve the quality decision-making in the future. Learning and improving on the go will help team members contribute effectively as a team. Listening skills both ways is ideal, but the team leader has a clear responsibility to listen to everyone on the team to ensure better outcomes.

What stood out to me in my past leadership roles is how the team responds to your willingness to learn from all the experiences, good and bad. It does come down to being secure enough to have an open mind and spread excitement about team members sharing feedback. An inclusive environment means everyone's opinion is essential, and keeping that standard naturally develops trust within the team. Being a good listener and confirming with your audience that their communication is heard is vital.

It's important to know how to reach all the people in your team. Recently I reviewed our high level organisation objectives alongside what we already, have going on in the innovation space as a team. They decided to change something and review another product, which has since been changed. I presented this based on the game hopscotch, they remember it. Refer back to our conversation and the comments and new ideas keep on coming. My approach has been shared as good practice for engagement.

Spend some time reflecting after making your choice. Examine what went right, what went wrong, and what could be done better. This analysis can show how particular choices impacted the mental health of the team and its morale as a whole. Encourage team members to express their thoughts and feelings about the procedure, since this input will help guide future choices. Continuous improvement not only raises the standard of decisions, but also shows a dedication to the group's happiness and mental wellbeing.

First thing: At times leaders need to hold own views and express preference of decision towards end. Second thing: Sometimes there is pattern of supporting first or vocal voice, in those cases asking if anyone else has different view and encouraging those voices to get expressed before final decision Third Thing: volunteering to express initial opinion with good and bad of the decision and various alternatives and then posing a question to group, how do we make a better decision out of the situation for bigger, and longer term impact? Leaders can use multiple techniques but largely team dynamics and culture matters significantly. How leaders can create safety net for alternative views and team members sees that safety net in real action.

I am a great fan of (1) asking every team member for their perspective in a given time, say 2-3 minutes, and, (2) making sure that I listen actively to everyone - with active listening being the keyword. No judgements, just listening. Making sure that I've heard everyone is, in my view, a great way to involve all team members.

One technique that I still use is the “brown paper” one. Very recently, using this methodology, I’ve invited my team to rethink our processes, KPIs, alignment to the company strategy and how we could, collectively, do better. It was very rewarding - from new hires to executives, I had the opportunity to collect their contributions and ideas, some that I’ve never anticipated. No hierarchy or forbidden topics.

I lead many project brainstorming sessions, where we encourage creative thinking and value all suggestions. After identifying multiple options each member is given an opportunity to vote, with each team member having two votes for their preferred choices. Once we narrow down the options, we openly discuss the pros and cons of the two options most supported by votes. Empowering our team's voices is important in my leadership role. This inclusive process, leveraging everyone's experience, results in greater buy-in and support for the final decision.

One thing that works is to know what motivates your team members; What are their aspirations? What are the areas of growth? etc. If you can align the conversation and their role in the assignment to be something that excites and motivates them, then they will be more inclined to participate and deliver quality work. Then give them space to OWN their work. Check-in with them but be careful not to micro-manage. This is their moment to shine, give them the spotlight and don't forget to give them credit when reporting on progress to your own superiors. Your leadership in this context will benefit everyone, including yourself.