This month’s theme is all about making decisions in chaotic and complex environments!
This is especially important as we’ve all been living through some chaotic and unpredictable situations over the past 5 years.
It’s easy to fall into analysis paralysis, afraid to make a decision for fear of doing the wrong thing. And if you’re making decisions as a leader?
Your choice can have huge impacts on the people you lead or the people you serve. So here are 5 resources to help you:
–Resource 1–
HBR Article: A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making
In this article for HBR, authors Daniel Snowden and Mary Boone lay out a really compelling case for the differences between complex and complicated environments and how that impacts how you should think about making decisions. They apply the Cynefin framework to help you approach these different types of situations and how to probe, observe, analyze, and start responding to a variety of contexts.
–Resource 2–
How Barack Obama approached Decision Making
In this article on Medium, President Obama shares his experiences and his approach to making complicated decisions. Something I learned that made sense to me, but I hadn’t thought about before was that as President, all the easier questions are answered before they get to that level. Only the hardest and most complicated questions made it to his desk. And that will feel the same way for any of you in leadership positions – it always feels like people are only bringing problems to you.
Read how President Obama approached this
–Resource 3–
Using the 1-3-1 method to teach your employees how to solve problems
Related to the above point is that many leaders complain to me that they wish their employees took more initiative to solve problems or try to solve problems before bringing it to them. Luckily, there’s an easy format you can use with your employees to teach them to start solving problems more on their own. Enter: the “1-3-1” method. In this approach, if an employee has a problem and needs your help, they have to present via (1) Identify the problem; (2) Generate 3 possible solutions; (3) Share which of those 3 solutions they think would work best. It’s not an immediate solve, you still have to spend time teaching them and coaching them through the process, but it’s a great way to start empowering them AND still support them.
Read and Listen more here on how to use it
–Resource 4–
Decision Making Framework: RAPID
Most people are familiar with the RACI model of project accountability and role/responsibility clarification, but if you’re looking for a more updated and appropriate framework for making decisions, I present RAPID. It was originally designed by Bain & Company and adapted by the Bridgespan Group. It’s a really elegant and useful tool to help you identify who the Recommender is, anybody who must Agree on the decision, who is responsible for Performing the task/executing it, anyone who’s Input must be solicited, and who has the final Decision.
–Resource 5–
TEDx: 3 Steps to Better Decision Making
I’m a visual person, so having a video is always helpful. In this TEDx talk, Matthew Confer walks through the 3 steps to better decision making. He shares how to (1) Challenge the constraints; (2) Embrace a pre-mortem (my personal favorite tool); and (3) Check the basics/small details.
I’m hopeful that you found something useful here! If you aren’t on my weekly newsletter where I go through difficult conversation tips weekly, you can get on the list here
Next month, I’m going to cover resources in strategic planning AND implementation.
Cheers,
Chris
PS – on May 7th, 2pm EST, I’m delivering a webinar on how to pitch and sell your idea to senior leadership. Join me to learn how to pitch ideas with confidence and clarity using the WHAC method – a framework designed to help you say less to get more. I’ll also cover the art of storytelling, influence, presence, executive persuasion, and public speaking so you can make your ideas impossible to ignore. Through case studies of real leaders pitching and selling their ideas, this session will give you actionable skills in executive persuasion to influence senior decision-makers effectively.
