Deciding how to decide builds cohesiveness

Posted: May 24, 2019 | Categories: Leadership, Team Building

A vital part of teamwork is collaborating to solve problems.  With skillful dialogue a solid team can usually come to a consensus on what to do.  Once this occurs, there is one more important step:  Decide how you will make decisions.  Here is an example:

In the spring of 1980, my wife and I had just purchased a house, and we also needed a car.  We were on a tight budget, but we both agreed we needed a new car.  A short time later, I was visiting a dealer, and they just took a car off the truck that was exactly what we were looking for.  It was a basic Toyota Corolla for $4000 brand new.  I caught them before they could put any “add-ons” to it.  It wasn’t long before I was back home with a car.  I thought I made a great decision.  That may be true, but my wife was furious.  She was understandably upset that she was not involved in such an important decision.  Even though we had both agreed that we needed a new car, we had not detailed and agreed upon a decision-making process.

Several years later we were once again in the market for a new car.  This time I was smarter.  Joyce and I sat down and went through all the possible cars and options.  There was give and take, and we ended up agreeing on the process.  Since we had detailed and agreed on exactly what we wanted, the only thing left was to execute.  One day I had an appointment cancelled, and I stopped by a dealer to look around.  They were offering exactly what we were looking for at the perfect price.  I bought the car, went home, and showed Joyce the paperwork.  “Looks good”, she said.  That was it.  (She doesn’t get too excited about cars)  Our process of buying a new car went smoothly this time, because we had decided how we were going to decide.  I recommend you and your team do the same.  It will prevent violated expectations.