Difference between revisions of "Sustainable Business Learning Community Conversations, continued"

Revision as of 20:13, 3 October 2012

September 27, 2012 Topic: Decision-Making

Comments on last week's discussion of Leadership:

• Some people find themselves in a position of leadership without any aptitude for it, having landed there through no fault of their own.

• There is a lot of focus on entrepreneurial training but very little on training for leadership skills these days. Supervisory and management skills in many areas of business are not taught as much as they ought to be.

• Leadership is so much more complicated than many of us imagined. Human beings are very complex.

• Some people are competent in a particular area but have no skill in teaching others.

Taking control in a business situation:

• A client might say, "I want this thing done on this day for this price." If you say yes to this, they become the de facto leader. You are now on his project team and that becomes your world. Do you want to work with that person as leader? Are you comfortable with him being in that leadership role? Are you better off if you take control? Just because that person is paying for it, does that make him the leader? Will you relinquish your leadership role to him?

• Pick two of three: One suggestion is to let the client pick two of the following three parameters: Time/cost/product. You have control of the third parameter; that way you keep control of the project.

A good leader is someone who supports you. Therefore, it can be helpful to communicate to the leader the best way to lead you: This is what I'm good at, this is what I'm not good at, this is what I need from you in order to complete this work. Be clear and specific - most people will thank you for it.

Sometimes the person who is thrust into a leadership role isn't really a natural leader and then those working for him begin to take some over some areas of leadership. They lead from behind, in a way.

Jess (Food Lab): When working with new staff, Jess asks them to come up with a list of what they need from her and she has found this very helpful.

Find out what are the best qualities in each person, and then arrange work tasks around that in order to get the best result and the best work out of each person.

How do we make decisions?

Topic for today: Decision-Making

We are all faced with a variety of decisions every day. You can only do so many tasks and make so many decisions in a single day. So how much time can you really devote to decision-making? How much does it tax you emotionally to keep making decisions?

The Paradox of Choice: This is the idea that in western society we have an abundance of choices which, instead of freeing us, paralyzes us, and causes us to become more dissatisfied rather than happier. The more choices you have, the less satisfied you are with the choice you finally make.

Do you prefer just doing a task that doesn't require a lot of thought or do you prefer thinking about things? Does thinking about too many things cause you worry and anxiety?

How does modern technology affect our ability to make good decisions?

• Mike takes regular breaks w/o computer/phones. He is in the habit of having down time, whether he thinks he needs it or not.
• The amount of time we spend not looking at a computer, phone, or TV has gone down drastically in recent years. We have very little uninterrupted quiet time to allow our brain to slow down, process, think, relax.

Take stress out of decision making:

1. Make sure the business has a strong shared vision. Make sure people can make their own decisions, based on the shared vision. When vision is strong, decision is easy, everything flows into the vision of your business. Clear vision = clear decision.
2. Set up decision matrices, a series of smaller decisions that can help lead you to that larger decision.

Working on your business should be intentional, spend time on it each week.

Benefit of closing doors (metaphorically speaking) helps you to clear space, to not get distracted by shiny things around you. Closing one door can open the door to other, better opportunities.

Thoughtful decision-making:

1. Are you missing some information you can get access to? Some information that you need? What is that piece of information? Get it and decide.
2. Would you know a good answer if you saw it? What's your perfect answer? Do you have one? How can you decide if you don't know what your answer is?
3. Figure out what kinds of decisions you are not willing to make in 24 hours. Allow yourself the time to think, reflect, on your more sensitive issues.

Other things to think about:

• You may not have all the information you'd like to have to make this decision, but you have all the information you're GOING to have. Make your decision based on the best information available to you.
• Rely on your gut feelings: If you hesitate, don't do it.
• Think about the risk involved and evaluate that risk. Don't spend mental energy on decisions with no or low risk, because it just doesn't matter. Spend time on decisions with higher risk.
• You may have some values/principles that are more important than others. Think about the factors involved in a decision that are most important to you. Job may pay you lots of money, but you have to move your family and don't want to do that.
• Inaction: what is lost from NOT making a decision. What is the cost of not deciding?
• Surround yourself with community - groups make better decisions than individuals. Take your thoughts to the group - helps to view the complexity of the decision you're trying to make, makes it clearer for you. Don't make any significant decisions on your own.
• Identify the big decisions. Create a system for dealing with trivial decisions. If you are left with fewer decisions to make, then the quality of your decisions will be improved.
• Try to build up leadership capacity in your business so that it becomes habit for the people working with you. Habits are automatic decisions.
• Whatever decision you make, it has to have integrity. Will your decision involve other people? How? Believing in yourself and your decision is important, even if you get a bad outcome. If you fail "forward", you will learn something from it.
• When you decide to do something, execute it well. That can make all the difference. Perhaps your decision turned out wrong because you didn't execute it well.
• Break larger decisions into smaller, more discrete manageable decisions that you can deal with right now.

What's the smallest decision that I can make at this moment?

• Define what your choices are in a decision and let clients know what their response choices are.

Next week's topic: Decision making as a group