(December 2, 2024 Newsletter)
There are many reasons why organizations are slow to make decisions, like added layers of hierarchy, a culture of perfectionism, or handling sensitive information.
Whether the reasons are warranted, there is a price to be paid. Slow and clunky work can lead to internal frustration and friction, and it can risk stakeholder relations.
If you believe that your decision-making process could be smoother and faster, I’m sorry to say that nothing will change until you initiate a courageous conversation.
Here are five steps you could take to jump start the process:
Scope out how wide-reaching the challenge is. Is this a You problem? Your team? The whole organization? Being honest about that will help size up how big the challenge will be to overcome. If you recognize that you’re the bottleneck, you may want to get some 1:1 coaching. If your team has a reputation for holding others up, you can gather some data from partners and then huddle with your people to plan. If it’s the whole organization, the process will likely involve multiple champions, buy-in from the top (if that’s not you), and you’ll be the hero if you initiate solving it.
Determine the root cause of the bottlenecks. What’s being balancing on the other side of the scale against speed? Is your team or organization concerned about accuracy and precision? Are there many egos that feel important because they’re part of the Deciders? Is the work client-facing and therefore seen as higher stakes? Whatever your answer, there are assumptions underneath that need to be unpacked and updated. Pressure test your hypotheses by running them by others.
Bring in the relevant parties to brainstorm. Your answers to questions 1 and 2 will shape who needs to be included in a conversation about realigning expectations. The agenda should feature a discussion about the root cause (maybe you’ll find out it’s something else!) and laying out some options for how to experiment with speeding up the process. Here are some questions that could be helpful: What are we worried will get messed up if we make decisions faster? What evidence do we have that this concern is justified (and therefore how accurate is it)? What are we losing out on by being extra careful right now?
Decide what needs to change. That meeting should end with a plan that includes the following: What experiment are we running? How will be know if we’ve made progress? When are we meeting again to review progress and adjust the plan according to our learnings? Who is driving this forward? What is each person pledging to try?
Reinforce the plan. Make sure the relevant parties have access to the plan that was just put together. If you’re not the point person, make sure that whoever is will keep it front and center for the chosen time period.
Thought bubble: Owning up to your role will make others feel comfortable to do the same. Finding ways to call each other out respectfully will likely involve “I statements” and plenty of curiosity, meaning you can say what you need to say and also be kind.
If you’re not sure how to do that, I’m happy to help.
The Coaching Corner
What’s in your control?
When team members come to you to vent or complain, helping them parse out what’s in their circle of influence (either directly or indirectly) has a few benefits: they can shift their energy to something productive, they can narrow the scope to the portion of the challenge where they can have an impact, and they can start to make a plan. Here are a few ways to phrase it:
“It sounds like this is a challenging [or complicated] situation. Out of everything you described, what can you control?”
“It seems like there’s a lot going on here. What part of it can you influence?”
“It looks like there are a lot of moving parts. What impact could you have, directly or indirectly?”
Recommendations
“Speaking Well in Tough Moments” – an old episode of HBR’s Ideacast with Holly Burns. She offers a quick overview of ways to keep your cool and pick neutral phrasing when you’re in the middle of a conversation that’s going off the rails.
In catching up on old podcast episodes that I’ve missed in the last few months, I found this gem between two great thinkers of our era: Brené Brown and Esther Perel on AI – Artificial Intimacy. Lots of gems and food for thought.
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