The Case for High-Impact Decisions as Competitive Differentiator
When organizations adopt the right decision making practices, they:
- Increase their number of good business decisions by 6 times.
- Cut their failure rates by half.
Research shows that organizations with high decision making speed and quality generate:
- 2.5 times higher growth
- 2 times higher profit
- 30 percent higher returns on invested capital
These organizations also experience greater transparency, accuracy, stability, and speed.
Sources: McKinsey, Harvard Business Review
A 2021 survey found that 65 percent of decisions made in organizations today are more complex — involving more stakeholders and choices — than they were two years ago.
And yet:
- 80 percent of people do not feel their organizations excel at decision making.
- More than 50 percent of managers say their decisions are not timely.
- 57 percent of C-suite executives feel that their decision making time is not used effectively.
- A mere 2 percent of managers/executives regularly apply best practices when making decisions.
Further, managers at a typical Fortune 500 company may waste more than half a million days a year on ineffective decision making.
Sources: Source: McKinsey, Gartner, Harvard Business Review
Behaviors Learned
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Move team members away from personal agendas to the pursuit of truth -
Create an environment of psychological safety -
Foster open, objective dialogs across the team -
Engage in discovery, learning, and growth -
Challenge each-others’ thinking in a safe and constructive manner -
Practice intellectual humility
Core Ideas
When we’re dealing with high-stakes issues, it is critical that we uncover all risks and opportunities, and all possible solutions and constraints, in the situation. No one individual on a team typically has a perfect understanding of the issues, or a monopoly over the truth. To make the best decision, team members need to share all relevant ideas, facts, and perspectives and then investigate and resolve them objectively.
Mentora’s program on High-Impact Decision Making is founded on five principles:
Align
Get team members to rise above their individual agendas to align on a common objective.
Dialog
Allow all relevant ideas, facts, and perspectives to be thoughtfully shared, debated, and resolved as a team.
Enquire
Shift team members from a knower to a learner mindset so that they go beyond advocating their position to enquiring and understanding situations better before finalizing their point of view.
Learn
Focus not just on maximizing performance on projects but also on maximizing learning from every experience. A project is not simply successful or unsuccessful — every attempt can yield valuable insights, partial breakthroughs, and fresh ideas.
Engage
Get the quieter voices on the team to speak up and have constructive ways to challenge and, where needed, contradict and overturn others’ thinking.
