
How To Create Decision-Making Processes That Prioritize Your Business’s Values
Source - Forbes
Making decisions can involve a number of different factors that complicate the decision-making process. When an organization needs to make a move, having a clearly defined process for both critical and noncritical decisions is essential to keeping the business moving forward.
However, creating and implementing an effective decision-making process gets complicated when leadership has to consider:
- the established values of the company,
- employees and the needs of customers.
To help, here are some ideas leaders can use to implement a decision-making process that prioritizes the values of the organization.
Key is keeping the organization’s values at the forefront.
- Start By Ensuring there is Moral Leadership Present
Having the moral leadership in place is vital. This assists with creating a guide when prioritizing the values of the organization. This allows leaders to adapt any complicated issues around the decision. It will drive the process towards value more heavily because the culture “cost” for not valuing those values will make the business suffer, even if the monetary outcome is preferred.
2. Practice What You Preach
The leaders of an organization should embody the values of that organization. It shouldn’t be a fight to develop a process that prioritizes the company values because the leadership team should inherently do that. When disagreements arise, talk through them, respect the other people in the room and develop solutions that best suit the company’s needs and values.
3. Make The Mission Statement Universal
Be exceptionally clear on what the values of the organization actually are. Too often, we assume that our mission statement means the same thing to everyone. Make sure you spend time so everyone can understand the mission and how they fit in to help achieve it. Get clear, then make sure you analyze decisions based on the fabric of the values.
4. Define The Core Values Explicitly
When an organization has a thoughtfully created list of primary core values, complete with definitions, it becomes a simple yes or no matter when considering decisions. Having a concise and appropriate core focus amplifies this effect. Consider whether decisions aligns with your core values. Does it move you toward your core values or push you away? Once this is determined, everything becomes a simple yes or no question.
5. Determine Whether The Risks Are Manageable
If you are evaluating a decision based on the values of your organization, then if the identifiable risks are manageable, you should make the decision and start problem solving. The impetus necessary to problem solve doesn’t arise until a decision is made. When you have a values-based decision, you spend less time on decision making and more time on problem solving. In business that is how things get done.
6. Review Everything With The Intent To Solve Problems
During your morning team huddle and your weekly management meeting, review the issues list with the mindset to identify, discuss and solve them. When your company is actually focused on and revolves around your core values, it shouldn’t be a challenge to make decisions based on them since you live and breathe them rather than letting them sit on a plaque on the wall. Allow accountability from team members.
7. Be Flexible
It is crucial to be flexible when making decisions. Things constantly evolve, so new information will inevitably come up during decision making. If necessary, be prepared to revisit previous decisions with new evidence. Establish a flexible decision-making framework and open communication channels, which will both allow your team room for growth while maintaining consistency.
8. Ask for and Listen To Customer Feedback
In order to implement a decision-making process that prioritizes the values of the organization, organizations can listen more closely to what their customers are saying. Giving customer-facing staff more decision-making authority and conducting surveys directly with customer focus groups are the best ways to increase customers’ influence and the company’s responsiveness to their needs. From research organizations grow faster and better when customer facing team can make decisions on the spot in favor of the customer. Refer to Scandinavian Airlines.
9. Reverse Engineer Decisions
In other words begin with the end in mind. Starting from the output of the decision and working backwards to analyze the impact is very important. This will help model out various scenarios for one decision and play out the right one that suits your business.
10. Thoroughly Analyze and Weigh Up Each Option
The key to multi-factor decision making is to weigh up the importance of each value now, weigh up each project’s ability to deliver the value and weigh up the feasibility of getting the strategy done. Then seek synergies.
11. Streamline Processes Based On Priority Level
In regards to decision making, a properly streamlined process needs to exist. Depending on the critical success factors and the respective goals, a business has to work with different scales of priority all ranging from urgent priority to low priority. These priorities are bound to the ethics and values of the organization, which can be internal and external.
12. Determine What Factors Are Valuable In The Market
You must ask your target market what is important to them. You can then work on taking decisions in line with what is important.
For a luxury brand, aesthetic intelligence is a determining factor in decision making because in luxury aesthetic, intelligence equals longevity.
13. Trust Your Gut Instincts
You can make quick decisions that effortlessly align with your company’s values if you simply trust your gut instincts and take decisive action without fear of the consequences. Mistakes breed valuable lessons, but inaction will potentially cost more in the long run. Successful leaders in the right organizations make decisions that naturally align with company values if they just listen to their gut.
14. Make Decision, take Action
You must take action as that is what will get you and your organization towards its goals. As Tom O’Toole says: People do the following: They are ready and they aim, aim aim, but they need to FIRE. Without firing or taking action you can have the best business in the world but go nowhere.