The importance of good decision making

Information Outlook, April, 2006 by Debbie Schachter

You're new to your management position in a special library and your staff seems to be pleased with your initiatives. In meetings, your library staff seems to be supportive of your ideas for general changes and responses to particular issues. Staff members offer few suggestions or disagreement on the actions that you bring forward, and you have felt secure in proceeding with resolutions, based on your best judgment. Recently, however, a couple of key decisions that you have initiated have led to some significant negative results, unforeseen by you and apparently by your employees, as well. What is going wrong?

This scenario, while somewhat simplistic, is an example of flawed decision making in action, and a problem to which the new manager may be especially prone. With the best of intentions on the part of the library manager and her or his staff, it is clear that the lack of an effective process for decision making will lead to negative results. As the library leader, you need to recognize what is occurring in your library and seek to redress it before major problems arise. As suggested by the volume of management literature on decision making, it is the lack of or poorly understood decision-making process in your library, that leads to problems, and there are some recognized methods for responding to the negative situation.

As the library manager, you understand the expectations of your own superiors--that you are ultimately responsible for the library's direction and the decisions made to reach library goals. This assumption of your responsibility will also be shared by your staff members, but possibly to an extent that they are afraid to speak up in meetings or to share their concerns or suggestions. How you foster your employees' perceptions of their roles in library decision making is based on how or whether you define your expectations for your staff.

As an individual, you may actually dislike it when staff members disagree with you. This type of attitude will inevitably leads to a form of groupthink your employees won't bother to critique issues or suggest resolutions to problems, because they assume you will feel threatened by their outspokenness. Alternately, you may have high expectations of receiving feedback, suggestions, and some level of healthy skepticism of shared ideas, but your staff doesn't rise to meet these expectations. Ultimately, the result is the same--poor decision making--and calls for a serious review and revamping of your library's decision-making process.

To make the best of decisions, you need to encourage the critical thinking and information sharing skills of your staff members; if these skills exist already, you simply need to provide an environment that encourages staff members input. Information needs to be shared and alternative actions analyzed. For the best decisions, that is, those based on the best available information and with the most support from your staff, you need to develop some level of consensus. As Michael A. Roberto of the Harvard Business School states, consensus consists not of being in total agreement as to the solution, but of "a high level of commitment to the chosen course of action and a strong, shared understanding of the rationale for the decision." (1)

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Creating the Process

Start by examining your own behavior with your staff, with respect to seeking their input and sharing of information with then. Determine whether you feel threatened by opposing views, or do you overtly welcome discussion? In order to lead effectively, you must be open to the healthy discussion of issues and not feel your leadership is in doubt through healthy questioning of situations and potential resolutions. Next, convey to your staff, particularly the managers and supervisors who report directly to you, what your expectations for decision making will be from now on. A problem or idea should be brought up by one staff member and discussed by the group. Information from other employees should be shared, and alternative views discussed. Especially for complex issues, make sure there are no assumptions that any particular proposal is the "right answer" until all key individuals have participated in the discussion.

Consensus Building

Not every action or solution will meet the expectations of each staff member; however, through using an inclusive discussion and critical thinking model, you will reach your goal of obtaining a consensus on moving forward. Obviously, not every decision needs to take a lot of time to proceed through these steps. A management meeting may offer the opportunity to discuss and move forward with a number of action items; however, major library directional changes and issues that affect on all staff and users need to move fully through this process.

Remember, consensus is not about everyone agreeing on one idea, but in ensuring that the process to reach a solution is universally understood to be valid. It is support for implementing any action or resolution that is key to its success. You are interested in not only the best possible solution, but also the one that will be most successful in implementation, through communication and consideration of the impact on all staff members.