How to Make Company Decisions
You're planning a trip with friends. What do you do?
- Send a group email: "Hey Y'ALL! What do y'all want to do this year? Let's do something fun like last year! OH YEAH! OMG OMG OMG"
- Take suggestions.
- Decide as a group where to go this year.
If you prefer a different destination, you give your input.
What happens when you vote for the spot?
BAM: Everyone likes/is-committed-to the destination; everyone goes; everyone has a fun time with everybody else.
- One, united, common, agreed-upon decision.
No politics.
Everything out in the open.
It's how Google decides company decisions. It's how McKinsey does it.
Everyone has a say.
What traditionally happens in companies?
- Executives decide on X.
- Executives drag along everybody else to X. (It's akin to a few friends deciding on a vacation spot for the entire group before getting any input, reserving tickets, charging airfare, and expecting everyone to come along merrily.)
- People become angry; politics arise; morale drops.
Because Billy Bob secretly prefers a different destination based on his front-line experiences dealing with his customers, he's not fully-committed to the executives strategies -- so his productivity drops.
You lose your ability to serve your customers to your company's fullest potential.
Another competitor, united among its peeps, comes along, takes your market share, and puts you into mediocrity.
YOU LOSE OH NO
Making important company decisions?
Group.
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Posted April 09 in |
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on "How to Make Company Decisions"approach (Rank: #110)
Sure, most companies only pretend to be democratic, and the pretending is a morale killer. Better that the King just makes a decree without soliciting-then-discarding your "input." Simple tyranny vs tyranny-with-a-smiley-face? I'll skip the mind-f*ck, thank you.
The failure of phony democracy doesn't mean that the real thing is better, though..
In your lets-do-something-fun scenario, all participants are equally qualified to express an opinion. You can't really make the case that Alice knows more about having fun than Bob. Hence the democratic vote.
A company, though, is divided into areas of responsibility. And people in the company are not equal in terms of competence in those areas. So going one-man-one-vote gives the ignorant the same say as the competent. This scheme is also known as "design by committee," and suffers from the same problems; mediocrity, diffusion of responsibility, etc.