The Practice of Leadership » Decision-Making

The Importance of Questioning Your Work

George Ambler — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:00:07 +0000

Take some time out to think and reflect on what your busy with, your purpose and on what are you striving to achieve. Then ask yourself, is what I’m doing directly contributing to my purpose? To remain on track 37signals suggest that to stay effective that we need to regularly question our work, by asking the following:

These are questions we ask each other before, during, and sometimes after we work on something. That something can be as small as a couple-hour project or as big as something that takes a few weeks or more. Either way, it’s important to ask questions like this in order to make sure you’re doing work that matters.
Why are we doing this? Ever find yourself working on something but you don’t know why? Someone just told you to do this or that? It’s pretty common I think. It’s important to ask yourself (and others) why you’re working on this. What is this for? Who benefits? What’s the motivation behind it? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you better understand the work itself.
What problem are we solving? What’s the problem? Are customers confused? Are we confused? Is something not clear enough? Was something not possible before? What problem are we solving here? Sometimes when you ask yourself this question you’ll find that you’re solving an imaginary problem. That’s when it’s time to stop and reevaluate what the hell you’re doing.
Is this actually useful? Are we making something useful or are we just making something? It’s easy to confuse enthusiasm with usefulness. Sometimes it’s fine to play a bit and build something that’s cool, but it’s worth asking yourself if it’s useful too. Cool wears off, useful never does.
Are we adding value? Adding something is easy, adding value is harder. Is this thing I’m working on actually making the product more valuable for people? Can they get more out of it than they did before? There’s a fine line between adding value and subtracting value. Sometimes adding is subtracting. Too much catsup can ruin the fries. Value is about balance.
Will this change behavior? Developers have a tendency to add stats to a screen just because they can. Counts, totals, sums, averages. Numbers can look cool, but do they change behavior? Does it matter if someone knows there are 38 of these instead of 42? Does it matter that someone knows it took 0.08 seconds instead of 0.02? Sometimes it might, but it’s important to constantly ask yourself: Will knowing this information change someone’s behavior? Can they do something useful with this information? Will they make a better decision because of this information? If not, pull it out of the interface. Data without purpose is noise.
Is there an easier way? There are lots of ways to do things, but for simplicity’s sake let’s say there are two primary ways: The easier way and the harder way. The easier way takes 1 unit of time. The harder way takes 10 units of time. Whenever you’re working on the harder way you should ask yourself is there an easier way? You’ll often find that the easier way is more than good enough for now. Most people’s problems are pretty simple — we just imagine they are hard.
What’s the opportunity cost? What can’t we do because we’re doing this? This is especially important for smaller companies that are more resource constrained. Limited time makes prioritization more important. If we work on feature A can we still do Feature B and C before April? If not, would we rather have B and C instead of A? Is A really worth the opportunity cost? Ask this all the time.
Is it really worth it? This one should come up all the time. Is what we’re doing really worth it? Is this meeting worth pulling 6 people off their work for an hour? Is it worth pulling an all-nighter tonight or could we just finish it up tomorrow? Is it worth getting all stressed out over a press release from a competitor? Is it really worth spending $1000/week on Google Adwords? Is it really worth…?

It’s too easy to rush into, work without taking time to consider the why, the what and the cost of the work. Corporate culture today rewards action and results, rightly so. However, in our haste to get results, we often act without taking the time to consider the consequences of our actions or the most effective way of producing results. By stepping back and questioning our work, we can make informed decisions about where we should be investing out time and energy. Yes, action is necessary to produce results, however purposeful and thoughtful action produces far better results and often with half the effort.

The Power of Commitment

George Ambler — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:53:52 +0000

As leaders we often underestimate the power of commitment, there is something powerful about being committed, I mean being truly committed to a cause, to a vision or to a meaningful purpose.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” – Goethe

The decision to act on what you’re committed to and passionate about starts a unique journey of discovery. You become more attuned to a new set of events occurring around you, you’re more aware of opportunities, many of these events and situation you would have brushed off and considered as unimportant.

“Until one is committed there is hesitancy,
the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation)
there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which
kills countless ideas and splendid plans:
The moment one definitely commits oneself,
then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise
never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and
meetings and material assistance,
which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”
- W.N. Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition

Where do you stand when it comes to committment:

Have you made a decision about what you want from life? Do you have a set of goals?
Are you committed to these goals?
Are you taking bold action to bring your vision into reality?

Insights into effective decision making

George Ambler — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:34:56 +0000

Leaders are central to the development of an environment that encourages effective decision making. As CCL discusses in their article “Unbalanced Influence: How Myths and Paradoxes Shape Leaders Myth of Effective Decision Making“. The article discusses how some leader feel that decision making is their right and their responsibility, where “the belief that a decision made at the top level will resolve a problem, crisis or opportunity has lured many leaders astray…” It’s important that leaders help their organisations and teams, to make effective decisions. Keeping decision-making as the exclusive right of the leader negatively affects the leader and organisation as follows:

Be fickle about a team approach. They value teamwork when it suits them, but then go solo when they want to make a decision.
Be more focused on time and “making” a decision than the decision-making process.
Limit input. They shut down group discussion too quickly or set rules about what may or may not be considered.
Impose undue pressure to act.

Leaders need to focus on creating an environment that support a robust decision-making process, rather than to focusing on making the decisions. To help in the development of a robust decision-making process, the article makes the following suggestions that can help leaders step away from the decision and to take a view of the bigger picture:

Try again. One of the greatest inhibitors in an organization is the assertion, “We already tried it and it didn’t work.” Experience can be a double-edged sword.
Slow it down. A quick decision isn’t always the best decision. Get in the habit of asking, “Why do I (or we) have to make this decision now?” Who or what is influencing or pressuring you to make a decision?
Operate at the edge of chaos. Create an environment where looking at multiple scenarios and alternative solutions is routine. Recognize that new circumstances and complexity change the operating reality. Allow freedom to discover both good and not-so-good ideas. Create a culture where the only bad decision is the one not made (as opposed to the one not made by you).
Ask questions. Listen to answers. Seek advice from people who don’t behave or think the way you do. Get the ideas of people who have different expertise and perspectives – and listen.
Let go of your ego. This may be extremely difficult, since self-confidence and a strong ego are often factors in executive success. But releasing the need to be in control, to be right or to have all the answers will foster better decisions and build organizational capacity.
Get support. Find a coach, colleague or friend who can relate to your world and help you make changes. Ask yourself, “Who is able to fully comprehend the issues and stress I face? Who can help me see how my influencers are coming into play? Who can help me see myself more clearly?”

Creating an environment that results in robust decision making is one of the tasks of the leader as social architect. How effective is your decision making process. Are you a leader that’s created a decision-making bottle neck at the top?

Technorati Tags: Decisions, Decision-Making, Choices, Leadership, Management, GTD, Execution

Peter Drucker On Leadership

George Ambler — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:26:59 +0000

There is a great article “Peter Drucker On Leadership” discussing the leadership principles of Peter Drucker, some of his ideas from the article that stood out to me are as follows:

What Needs to Be Done: “Successful leaders don’t start out asking, ‘What do I want to do?’ They ask, ‘What needs to be done?’ Then they ask, ‘Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?’ They don’t tackle things they aren’t good at…..”
Check Your Performance: “Effective leaders check their performance. They write down, ‘What do I hope to achieve if I take on this assignment?’ They put away their goals for six months and then come back and check their performance against goals. This way, they find out what they do well and what they do poorly. They also find out whether they picked the truly important things to do. I’ve seen a great many people who are exceedingly good at execution, but exceedingly poor at picking the important things….”
Mission Driven: “Leaders communicate in the sense that people around them know what they are trying to do. They are purpose driven–yes, mission driven. They know how to establish a mission. And another thing, they know how to say no. The pressure on leaders to do 984 different things is unbearable, so the effective ones learn how to say no and stick with it…”
Creative Abandonment: “A critical question for leaders is, ‘When do you stop pouring resources into things that have achieved their purpose?’ The most dangerous traps for a leader are those near-successes where everybody says that if you just give it another big push it will go over the top. One tries it once. One tries it twice. One tries it a third time. But, by then it should be obvious this will be very hard to do. So, I always advise my friend Rick Warren, ‘Don’t tell me what you’re doing, Rick. Tell me what you stopped doing.’”
How Organizations Fall Down: “Make sure the people with whom you work understand your priorities. Where organizations fall down is when they have to guess at what the boss is working at, and they invariably guess wrong. So the CEO needs to say, ‘This is what I am focusing on.’ Then the CEO needs to ask of his associates, ‘What are you focusing on?’ Ask your associates, ‘You put this on top of your priority list–why?’ The reason may be the right one, but it may also be that this associate of yours is a salesman who persuades you that his priorities are correct when they are not. So, make sure that you understand your associates’ priorities and make sure that after you have that conversation, you sit down and drop them a two-page note–’This is what I think we discussed. This is what I think we decided. This is what I think you committed yourself to within what time frame.’Finally, ask them, ‘What do you expect from me as you seek to achieve your goals?’”

As always Peter Drucker provides some great insights into leadership effectiveness.

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Effectiveness, Performance, Business, Peter Drucker, Communication, Vision

Do You Have a Set of Leadership Principles that Enable Others to Act?

George Ambler — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:04:03 +0000

An article by Dan Heath and Chip Heath, in Fast Company, Analysis of Paralysis discusses a key principle, “If your strategy doesn’t help employees act, it’s not a strategy.“, as discussed in the article….

“Researchers Eldar Shafir and Donald Redelmeier helped prove this point in an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association. They gave doctors the medical history of a 67-year-old man who’d been suffering chronic hip pain from osteoarthritis. He’d been given drugs to treat his pain, but they had been ineffective, so there was only one viable option: hip-replacement surgery, which would involve a long and painful recovery. Then a final check with the pharmacy uncovered one medication that hadn’t been tried. Would the doctors like to give the drug a shot? Forty-seven percent of doctors chose to try the medication in a final attempt to keep the patient from going under the knife.
Another group of doctors saw the same facts, except they were told that the pharmacy had discovered two medications that hadn’t been tried. If you were the patient with the bum hip, you’d be thrilled–two nonsurgical options are better than one. But when the doctors were presented with two nonsurgical options, only 28% chose to try either one.
What happened here is decision paralysis. More options, even good ones, can freeze us, leading us to stick with the “default” plan, which in this case was slicing open someone’s hip. This clearly is not rational behavior, but it is human behavior. Similar tests with different groups have revealed consistent results.
Think about the sources of decision paralysis in your organization. Every business must choose among attractive options: growing revenue versus maximizing profitability, quality versus speed to market. Fold together lots of these tensions, and you have a surefire recipe for paralysis. It took only two options to fuzz the doctors’ brains. How many options have your people got? As Barry Schwartz puts it in his book The Paradox of Choice, as we face more and more options, ‘we become overloaded…. Choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize.’ …. Simplicity is the way out. Imagine if the doctors in the psychology study had worked for a hospital with the mission statement, ‘Invasive treatments should be a last resort.’ Suddenly, the choice isn’t so paralyzing, even with two drugs. The statement is simple because it makes a decision easier, not because it’s dumbed down. Doctors aren’t idiots.”

The underlying principle is that: Simplicity allows people to act.

Leaders need a clear leadership philosophy, resulting in a set of principles that are clear and simple. When leaders are clear about their leadership philosophy and openly communicate it to their teams, people can confidently make decisions and act to bring about the leader’s vision. A good example of a leader communicating the principles that others can use to guide the organisation towards a vision is Jack Welch from GE. Remember Jack’s set of six leadership principles….

Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were.
Be candid with everyone.
Don’t manage, lead.
Change before you have to.
If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete!
Control your own destiny or someone else will.

These principles gave people a means to guide their decision making and actions, knowing that they were acting in the spirit of their leader’s vision. What principles do you use to guide your actions? Is your team aware of your principles? Do they understand them? Do you use principle with your team to guide how you go about achieving your vision? If not, this may be a good time to focus on developing a set of principles to guide how your team goes about achieving your vision.