Building a Consensus: A Guide to Making Inclusive and Justifiable Decisions with Your Team

Making inclusive and justifiable decisions within a team environment is crucial in creating a positive and productive work culture. This approach ensures that everyone feels valued and heard, and that the resulting decision aligns with the team's values and goals.

Having a structured approach to decision-making provides a clear and transparent process that helps to minimise bias, increase accountability, and improve the chances of making well-informed decisions. With the right tools and techniques, you can build a decision-making process that is fair, objective, and effective.

This mission of this monthly newsletter is to capture and distribute what we at The People Engagement Experts have picked up that passes as wisdom in a form that is directly practical and useful. What trainers like me might call 'takeaways'. Things like infographics, checklists, and templates. Books, presentations and training courses are great (as an author, speaker & trainer, I would say that) but most days they're a bit much and people have work to do. This newsletter will feature one short-form tool each month. This month, it’s the Decision Matrix – a structured way to collate the unstructured thinking that often goes into making decisions. Ideally you get a better decision out of it, but you definitely get all those involved in the decision feeling better about the process, AND you can explain / justify it afterwards to people who weren't there.

A Decision Matrix is a tool that helps evaluate and prioritise multiple options based on different criteria. It allows teams to consider all relevant factors, weight them according to importance, and objectively rank the options to arrive at the best decision.

To use a Decision Matrix in team decision-making, follow these steps:

1. Identify the problem or decision to be made.
2. List the options or solutions.
3. Identify the criteria to evaluate the options, such as feasibility, cost, and impact.
4. Assign a weight to each criterion to indicate its importance.
5. Evaluate each option against each criterion and score it.
6. Total the scores for each option and rank them according to their total score.
7. Discuss the results as a team and make a final decision (which may or may not be the 'winner' of the Matrix, but you'd better be able to collectively agree and explain why not).

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The benefits of using a Decision Matrix in team decision-making include:

1. Objectivity: A Decision Matrix eliminates personal biases and helps teams make decisions based on facts and objective evaluations.
2. Consistency: By using a consistent evaluation process, teams can ensure that all options are considered equally and that the final decision is fair.
3. Clarity: A Decision Matrix makes the decision-making process transparent and helps teams understand the reasoning behind each decision.
4. Collaboration: By involving all team members in the evaluation process, a Decision Matrix fosters collaboration and encourages active participation.

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Collectively determine the criteria against which you’ll judge your options with your team, or an influential subset of your team. Consider at least these issues:

1. Relevance to the decision at hand
2. Relevance to the team's goals and objectives
3. Feasibility and practicality
4. Impact on different stakeholders
5. Alignment with company values and ethics
6. Cost-benefit analysis

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If you get your process right in creating your decision matrix, the resulting decisions will be justifiable and inclusive, or least will seem so to your team. Make sure you:

1. Encourage open communication and active participation from all team members
2. Foster a culture of transparency and trust
3. Ensure representation of diverse perspectives
4. Encourage dialogue and facilitate discussions to reach a consensus
5. Document the decision-making process for future reference and accountability. (and to cover your butt…)

Clearly explain the purpose and benefits of the Decision Matrix to your team. Ensure everyone understands how the Decision Matrix works and how it will be used in decision-making. Encourage open communication and input from all team members to make the process inclusive.

Make the Decision Matrix a regular part of your team's decision-making process. Encourage all team members to use the Decision Matrix to evaluate options and make decisions. Ensure that the Decision Matrix is used consistently and objectively in all decisions.

Continuously review and assess the effectiveness of the Decision Matrix. Solicit feedback from team members and incorporate their insights into the Decision Matrix. Regularly refine and improve the Decision Matrix to ensure it continues to meet your team's needs and promote inclusive and justifiable decision-making.

A structured approach helps to clearly define the problem and establish criteria for evaluating potential solutions, reducing confusion and increasing focus on the decision at hand. By evaluating options based on established criteria, a structured approach minimises subjectivity and promotes objective decision-making. A structured approach, such as the Decision Matrix, allows for multiple perspectives and inputs to be considered, leading to more inclusive and equitable decision-making. With a clear process and criteria for decision-making, it is easier to hold team members accountable for their contributions and decisions. By clearly documenting the decision-making process, including the criteria used and the reasoning behind the final decision, a structured approach promotes transparency and reduces the possibility of misunderstandings or disputes. By systematically evaluating options, a structured approach ensures that all relevant information is considered, leading to more informed and effective decisions. With a structured approach to decision-making, teams are better equipped to make decisions that are aligned with their goals and objectives, leading to better long-term outcomes.

Have a crack with our sample Excel Decision Matrix template - be it for job interviewees, a large capital purchase, or buying a toaster. Here's a PDF one-pager explainer sheet. Let me know how you get on.

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