Advice Line | Bob Lewis | InfoWorld | The best way to make decisions | May 3, 2006 04:39 AM

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The best way to make decisions

May 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)

The best way to make decisions

Dear Bob ...

My boss and I argue regularly about whether his style, which is to run a consensus-driven organization, or mine - I tend to be more authoritarian - is better. He's constantly trying to get me to spend more time building consensus. I encourage him to be more decisive.

Who is right? Or should we each simply accept that we have different styles, and that's okay?

- Decisive

Dear Decisive ...

Finally - an easy one!

So here's the question you both should be asking each other: Who cares a fig what your style is, or his?

Imagine you're standing in the tee box on the golf course, looking down a long, narrow fairway, arguing over whether your style - you slice - or his, which is to hook, is better. Your styles are irrelevant. What matters is how the fairway goes.

There are five basic decision styles: Authoritarian, consultative, consensus, delegation, and democracy (voting). Democracy is awful for everything except when peers have to decide something and can't come to agreement - ignore it in all other circumstances. When you delegate a decision, the delegatee has to choose one of the five decision styles, so it's recursive. Ignore it too (for the purposes of this discussion - delegation is one of the most important skills a manager can master).

That leaves authoritarian, consultative, and consensus decision-making. Each is good for a different type of situation. Reserve authoritarian decisions for when fast and stupid is better than slow and wise, and when it doesn't much matter whether anyone else commits to the result. Unless you think you're the only person with something intelligent to say on a subject, don't use it if you have the time to do something else.

Consensus decision-making is slow, expensive and not all that much smarter than authoritarian decision-making, because it requires compromises that jeopardize consistency in favor of buy-in. Reserve consensus for situations where buy-in is more important than anything else.

That leaves consultative decision-making, where you ask a lot of people their opinions, actually listen to them to become smarter than you were before (lip-service consultation is simply authoritarian decision-making that irritates everyone, including the decision-maker) and then make the decision yourself, letting everyone involved know what you decided and why.

Consultative decision-making is what you and your boss should rely on for most of your decisions.

And for heavens sake, stop arguing. Arguing is about winning and losing. If you aren't having a discussion - trying to find common ground to solve a shared problem - both of you are wasting the company's time playing an unproductive game neither of you will ever win.

- Bob

Posted by Bob Lewis on May 3, 2006 04:39 AM

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COMMENTS

Bob,

Brilliant! Clear, concise, and useful. This is one I'm going to print out and stick to my cubicle wall.

Marc

Posted by: Marc at May 3, 2006 10:39 AM

To quote a character in one of my favorite books:

"He spent an inordinate amount of time, by
standard military doctrine, telling his men the
reasoning behind his orders, and he expected his
company and toon commanders to do the same with
their men. "That way, when we give you an order
without any reasons, you will know that it's
because there's no time for explanation, that you
must act now - but that there IS a good reason,
which we WOULD tell you if we had time.""

Orson Scott Card
"Shadow of the Hegemon"

I am of the opinion that you lead people how they need to be lead, not how you like to lead them. What you like is immaterial, as you aren't leading yourself. You can't build consensus out of a burning building and an authoritative style assumes that people have to do what you tell them. Only poor performers that have no other employment options HAVE to do what you tell them.

Posted by: Eric at May 3, 2006 12:41 PM

I am reminded of a saying I heard once. "Authority is a little like a bar of soap. The more you use it the smaller it gets"

Posted by: Ray Stevens at May 3, 2006 08:37 PM

Bob: You should send this one to our "leaders" in Washington.
Best,
JM
__

Posted by: John M. at May 4, 2006 04:21 AM

Bob,

Love the Cliff's Notes version of leadership 101, very timely in these uncertain times. I'm printing this one.

Posted by: Joe at May 6, 2006 09:48 AM

Margaret Thatcher put it very well:

"Being a leader is a lot like being a lady. If you have to keep reminding people you are one... you're probably not."

Tom

Posted by: Tom Francis at May 12, 2006 06:57 AM

How about the "procrastinative" decision making style: don't make any decision until circumstances dictate only one remaining obvious or feasible choice.

Posted by: Pete at May 16, 2006 12:05 PM

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