You Need a Decision-Making Process

I have been thinking a lot about the importance of having a proper decision-making process in place to make, informed decisions.

I see it so often in construction companies, where the focus is on the “getting of a decision” and not on the “making of a decision”. And there is a huge difference between the two.

The “getting of a decision” focuses on having a decision made, while the “making of a decision” focuses on how decisions are made. The former pays little attention to how the decision is made, instead, it welcomes a decision by any means necessary, especially if the decision-maker is outside of the organisation. I have found that often in ”getting” organisations, there is a blame culture, which is why “getting a decision” is the emphasis, so if all goes wrong, then the blame will lay outside of the organisation.

It is also my observation that whether a company focuses on “getting” or “making” is largely determined by the maturity of the organisation and by extension that of the CEO. Therefore, companies that focus their energy on “getting” tend to be lower down on maturity levels, meanwhile, companies that focus on “making” tend to be more mature and so higher up on the scale.

Why is that? Mature organisations are conscious of fostering a confident environment, putting to rest a culture of blame. They want innovation, risk-taking, and challenging old norms, and these things can only be had in environments where blame is not part of the culture. It is not surprising therefore that in an industry that is slow to innovate (construction), blame forms a large part of the culture.

In a mature organisation, the focus is drawn from the “getting” to the “making” of decisions. In mature organisations, they create decision-making processes that can digest, interrogate, and process information to allow for effective decision-making. Coupled with a positive and blame-free culture, people are confident operating the levers of the decision-making process. Activating the “making” of decisions and not relying on the “getting” of decisions.

Resulting in decisions that are tailor-made for the organisation, because they are being made by people internal to the organisation. While the decision-making process may not be quick, it appears to be quick, because there is certainty around the process and time is not spent passing the buck around to see where they can get a decision from.

Working with “getting of a decision” construction companies is no fun, I have seen instances where even senior leaders are crippled by this culture of blame. As the lawyer working on the deal, I am stuck waiting for someone to decide on X v Y, meanwhile, they are there looking at me hoping to get a decision from me. As a lawyer, sitting outside of their organisaiton, not privy to their financials, and inner workings I am often not well placed to make a decision that will affect the entire orgaination. I can make suggestions and provide alternative solutions, but ultimately the company must make a decision.

Whenever I work with a construction company that has a decision-making process in place, no matter how disorganised it may be, it is a breath of fresh air. I can rest assured that the levers will be pulled at the appropriate time and that my work will not be stalled because of indecision.

Leaders of “making of a decision” companies understand that not all decisions will be right. Mistakes will be made, but is it more important to them that their orgainstion owns the process of making decisions. The ownership allows them, as an organisation, to be close to the process with the opportunity to gather lessons learned and improve the process. They know that the process needs to sit within their company, otherwise, they have no control, unable to monitor, interrogate, and improve on their decisions. For these leaders, it is the fine-tuning of the process that is important because only then will their decision-making get better.

You need a decision-making process and you need to own the process. It cannot sit outside of your organisation, that is, if you want to have control over the process. Understand that there will be times when the decision made appears to be the wrong decision, but you cannot allow this to create a culture of blame and fear in your company. Creating such a culture of blame will open your organisation up to the “getting of decisions” and downgrade the maturity of your company because the decision-making muscle will not be stretched and improved. If you believe that looking outside of your company to “get” a decision is serving you, I assure you that you are mistaken.