You can look at the life of an organisation as a series of decisions. Few things will have as significant an impact on the trajectory of an organisation as decisions about how to allocate the budget, who to hire and fire, and what to prioritise on the product roadmap. Despite this, most people are never taught how to make decisions, and decision-making processes are rarely made explicit. They just happen in the background and we get used to the way things work.
If you ask any team member about their major complaints in a startup, it usually boils down to decisions made by management that they disagree with. Let's face it; many of us have participated in this type of grumbling in the past.
In some organisations, this becomes a cultural norm, at least among a subset of the team, with eye-rolling and critical comments greeting every new strategy or management decision.
It's not just the decision itself that alienates people; it's often the manner in which it's made. Failing to get buy-in from the team is one way that an organisation can go wrong when making a decision, but we often make other more damaging mistakes, such as betting the company on a product that goes nowhere or changing team structure repeatedly, disrupting the team without improving performance.
There’s a reason we get so many decisions wrong. Making decisions in life is hard and it’s even more difficult in start-ups! We often lack the information to be properly informed. Our systems are usually being built from scratch and so the right data hasn’t been collected or it isn’t easy to surface when you need it to inform a decision.
A rapidly evolving product and market means your roles and responsibilities have to remain fluid. This means it’s often unclear whose responsibility a particular decision is. Human nature means hard decisions often get left unmade, because we’re afraid of making the wrong decision or simply avoid applying ourselves to a tough problem. Then there’s the cognitive biases where our evolutionary programming can trip us up. That’s before taking into account all the bad decisions we make when we’re tired, distracted, overly focussed on a metric or being influenced by a group!
To begin with, when your team seeks your help in making a decision, the first step is to identify and clarify the actual problem. Rushing into solutions without a proper understanding of the problem likely means you’ll be back discussing the issue sooner rather than later. Keep probing and questioning until you get to the root cause of the issue. You may discover that the original problem is not the actual underlying issue that needs to be addressed, and focusing on the underlying issue will benefit your team in the long run.
After identifying the problem, it's important to assess the decision that needs to be made. Determine whether it's reversible and how consequential it is. To understand the possible outcomes of the decision, ask your team what could happen in the worst-case scenario. If the decision is irreversible and has significant consequences, take your time to make the decision and allocate appropriate resources to the process to give yourself the best chance of arriving at the correct answer.
On the other hand, decisions that are reversible and have limited consequences should be made quickly, and where possible, delegated to your team. Take some time to reflect on the types of decisions your team comes to you with and identify common themes. Are there guardrails or guidelines you can provide them to enable them to make more of these decisions themselves? How often do they face roadblocks in making these decisions? Empower your team to solve these issues themselves and they’ll find their roles more satisfying and you’ll get more time back.
One of the most common reasons for dysfunction in teams is a lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities. This can create confusion about who to turn to for help or decision-making, leading to unresolved issues and slow progress. A lack of clarity over roles can lead to an over-reliance on a few team members to make all the decisions, disempowering others and causing delays.
To avoid this problem, teams should take proactive steps to define and communicate roles and responsibilities clearly. There are loads of different tools and frameworks you can use for this such as the RACI framework to define who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed for a problem or process. As well as creating job descriptions (internal facing) which clarify in detail each team member’s responsibilities and areas that they’re accountable for.
If you’re not at the stage where you’ve got a clear process then it’s worth quickly clarifying: who needs to make this decision, who needs to be consulted, what information do we need to make this decision and when does the decision need to be made by. If you can make this decision straight away then just crack on. Speed will benefit everyone in the team. If roles and responsibilities haven’t been defined clearly enough it’s a great opportunity to show cross-organisation leadership by encouraging a conversation about this to maximise focus and productivity.
There’s plenty of decisions in startups which are pretty straight forward but some are more complex. Here are a few tools you can use to increase the chances of you making the right decision.
Consider what could happen if the wrong decision is made, what’s the worst possible outcome. Identify the worst possible outcome and weigh the risks against the potential rewards.
If you're struggling with a problem, try thinking about the opposite scenario. For example, if your onboarding flow has a low completion rate, consider what would need to be in place for it to have a high completion rate. This can help you identify solutions that you may not have considered before.
Is there a way to test potential solutions before fully committing to one? What assumptions do you need to test? If there are uncertainties about certain elements, is it possible to clarify them with data? Can a smaller budget be used for testing purposes before committing to the full amount?
Consider the probabilities of different outcomes to your problem and assess which decision would give you the best likelihood of a positive outcome. This can help you evaluate different options and make a more informed decision.
When making a decision, think about the potential indirect consequences. For example, if you change the sales team's commission, consider how it could affect team morale, customer relationships, and revenue growth. This can help you anticipate potential challenges and make a more well-rounded decision.
Identify likely roadblocks and start by tackling the most complicated elements of the project first so the rest can proceed faster. If the founder or CEO's approval is required, seek their input at the beginning of the project to avoid delays later on.
Your team members may have more knowledge about the problem than you do. Involve them in the decision-making process by discussing the problem, collecting their ideas on possible solutions, and discussing the challenges and dependencies for individual solutions. Although the responsibility for making a decision rests with you, involving your team can help you make a more informed decision and find more creative solutions. If your team is diverse and brings a variety of experience, skills and knowledge to problem solving then you’ll maximise your chances of finding the right decision.
Ensuring decisions are followed through on is not a complex process, but it requires ongoing discipline to consistently take the necessary steps. The ongoing discipline to execute well, is rare.
Firstly, it is essential to clarify the actions needed to resolve the problem and assign responsibility for each of them. Ensure everyone is clear on who is doing what. When discussing the actions with the team, challenge the timelines and see if there is any possibility to move faster.
Consider any dependencies involved in the problem's resolution. Determine what needs to happen in order for your team to make progress. Sense check whether these dependencies are real or if there are alternative ways around them.
Follow up with your team, check in about progress and find out why tasks are behind. Finally, book in the next wash-up meeting or confirm the date when the project will be reviewed so your team have clarity.
At Greenhouse we’ve gathered a team of start-up leaders, practitioners and leadership thinkers and put together the leadership and management programme that we needed when we started out. Click here to find out more.
If you're looking for more useful content on making decisions then check out the FS blog and First Round.
