What do you do if your team's decision-making is hindering success?

Slow decision-making or repetitive wrong decisions harm the team’s overall performance. The first step to enabling the team to make better decisions is to be clear about the objectives of the team. For instance, in sales, the goal is clear: close deals. This clarity guides decisions towards the end goal. While this is true, sometimes certain teams work with dependencies on other teams, and the circumstances they are subject to will be new. For such teams, we need to: *Have clear documentation of dependencies on other teams. *Keep a record of common scenarios and the best way to move forward. *Build transparency and approachability among the team members and leadership.

Structure decisions with pre-mortems, decision trees, ORAPAPA models, and scorecards are helpful. Also, visualization tools illuminate assumptions, alternatives, pros/cons. Real-time polling supports unbiased inputs and virtual whiteboards enable parallel ideation. You need to research best-fit solutions for your context.

In my experience providing training on cognitive biases, logic/reasoning skills, conflict resolution, and decision-making methodologies has helped me and teams I have worked with improve decision-making. Using case studies to practice applying frameworks and developing competencies in areas like data literacy, strategic thinking, and creative problem-solving are very essential. Finally, nurturing an environment for continuous learning.

In addition you should also ensure that leadership provides support and guidance to facilitate effective decision-making. Leaders should set clear expectations, provide resources, and empower teams to make decisions autonomously which can further enhance your team's decision-making capabilities and drive success within your organization.

Also, we should ensure leadership commitment to changing behaviours and instituting an evidence-based decision culture. It's important to avoid excessive analysis paralysis by setting clear deadlines. For high-stakes decisions, we should consider leveraging external expert facilitators. Align incentives to promote collaborative, unbiased decisions.