How does your team make decisions? I have seen teams try voting, 100% consensus, or just wait for the big boss to decide. I am thinking about writing a post on this -- so what works best??
Most of the models for decision-making have flaws... consensus (=we all agree so decisions can take a long time) autocratic (=the most dominant decide and the others don’t speak up) majority vote (=the needs of the minority can be disregarded) The alternative is... consent (=no objection) Have a look at #3 in this article: https://agileandchange.com/3-tools-from-sociocracy-to-use-right-away-plus-magic-phrases-535e908fd060
It used to be AB testing. If we can't come to a consensus on a way something is to be implemented, promotion run etc we would let the customer decide.
A team that can not operate without 100% consensus is severely broken. Team members that can not perform when they disagree with decisions are best moved to other places.
Brian, you are very devoted to the principle of working remotely. For both my wife and I remote work is no longer an option in our positions. Have you written about how to search for such opportunities ?
Great topic, would love to see an article on this. Some great ideas in the comments..
Entertain ideas from all team members but require the expert in the particular area to make the final decision and own it. If it's a technical decision, the lead architect decides, if it's a design decision, the lead designer on the team decides, etc. Groupthink and consensus-building are anathema to good decisions.
Decision making is essentially problem solving; the scope of the problem and the impact of the solution have to play into the process. Smaller decisions can and should be made by the individuals responsible, with appropriate consultation when necessary, otherwise you end up with slow demoralized teams (responsibility without authority is an anti-pattern). Teaching people how to make good decisions, recover from bad decisions, and enabling quick decisions takes practice, patience, and good coaching. When a decision has more significant impact, then certainly collaboration is essential; note I didn’t say consensus. The first thing that needs to be established is agreement on what the objectives or desired outcomes are and what are the measures of success; how will we know we made a good or bad decision? Then the team should agree on the key criteria for the decision; these usually fall into general categories of: time, cost, quality, and risk. Sometimes just talking these things through will yield an obvious decision. When a little more rigor is needed you can rank the relative importance of the criteria and then rate each option - check out Pugh Matrix. “By choosing not to decide you still have made a choice.” - Rush
Agile Leadership, Government Contract Fundamentals, Corporate Software/IT Program Management, Software/IT Project Manager (PMP - In process)
7 年With remote teams it is important to have opinions and buy in from all. It may not be 100% but everyone needs to understand the goal and feel their input is valuable to obtain that goal.