{"id":7346,"date":"2021-09-13T20:38:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T01:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=7346"},"modified":"2021-09-13T20:38:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T01:38:03","slug":"are-you-still-making-team-decisions-this-is-why-theyre-doomed-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/13\/are-you-still-making-team-decisions-this-is-why-theyre-doomed-to-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Still Making Team Decisions? This Is Why They’re Doomed To Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Teams don\u2019t make decisions. Individuals make decisions. Every decision must have someone\u2019s name written next to it.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The idea that there is such thing as a \u201cteam decision\u201d is one of the biggest myths in leadership.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And correcting that\u00a0myth could represent a significant leadership breakthrough.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someone must own the outcome. Someone must pace around thinking through every ramification and potential hurdle.<\/p>\n

In his Harvard Business Review\u00a0blog post<\/a>,\u00a0If You Think Your Team Makes Decisions, Think Again<\/em>, Bob Frisch wrote, \u201cExecutive teams may discuss issues, debate courses of action, and even give their stamps of approval, but they actually don\u2019t decide anything of moment as a group\u2026It is the leader, not the group, who ultimately allows that particular decision to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, if your goal is great decisions how should you work with your team?<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Start by clarifying roles, responsibilities and expectations.<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Instead of saying, \u201cTeam, we have a decision to make today,\u201d it should be, \u201cTeam, I have a decision to make today, (or \u201cSusan has a decision to make today\u201d) and your help is required.\u201d<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 Set the decision-maker up for success.<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

If you have given Susan the\u00a0responsibility\u00a0for a decision, you must also confer on her the\u00a0authority\u00a0to make that decision. Let the team know that it\u2019s her call. And it\u2019s her responsibility to ensure its success.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 Coach the team in how to support the decision.<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

By all means, coach your team to rigorously discuss and debate the ideas on the table. Individual members of the team may, or may not, agree with the decision reached by you or Susan. Your job then becomes coaching the team on how to support that decision even when they disagree.<\/p>\n

One of the key members of our team will regularly consult with me when I\u2019ve made a tough decision. If he doesn\u2019t agree with me he will always say, \u201cScott, I see this differently. But I will support you 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you allow the team-decision myth to live on, you risk losing accountability and ownership for that decision. Follow through can become sporadic and momentum can be easily lost.<\/p>\n

Always\u00a0make sure that every decision has a name written next to it. Make sure it is clear who has the responsibility and authority to make a call, and\u00a0coach your team toward honest feedback and support of decisions made.<\/p>\n

Because teams don\u2019t make decisions.<\/p>\n

Individuals make decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teams don\u2019t make decisions. Individuals make decisions. Every decision must have someone\u2019s name written next to it.\u00a0 The idea that there is such thing as a \u201cteam decision\u201d is one of the biggest myths in leadership. And correcting that\u00a0myth could represent a significant leadership breakthrough. Someone must own the outcome. Someone must pace around thinking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1018,478,7,1023,744],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decisions","category-featured","category-leadership","category-meetings","category-team-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7347,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7346\/revisions\/7347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}