Organizational Decision Making

Recently, I interviewed an international CFO and one thing he mentioned really caught me off guard. I was so dumb founded that I drifted off into "what if" land for a few seconds wondering what it would be like.

We were talking about who had decision making authority within adjacent organizations and how it was drastically different based on region. He said in some countries one man makes the decision and it is final whereas in others decisions are made by committee. This is, of course, analogous to the extremes of a pendulum, which naturally makes us think there is a good middle ground that we should seek for better decision making.

So, follow me into what if land. What if we threw out the middle ground.  Let's say the middle ground is like the middle of the screen in Frogger where you either get run over by a car, knocked out by a log or eaten by a gator. It's one side or the other to survive this little trek.

Everyone knows two heads are better than one and when people come together to make a decision they often consider more of the angles and implications of a decision simply because there is more brainpower in the room to pursue more trains of thought. Often great ideas come from groups of people brainstorming in think tanks.

The inverse is potentially just as effective, if poised appropriately. A single mind has the potential to make the decision exponentially faster than a committee since they need not deal with forms of communication that are reciprocally slower. When time is of the essence and the level of risk is acceptable a single person may be the best solution for delegation of authority.

I encourage you to consider delegating the power and authority you've acquired to those most suitable to make the decisions at the right time to expedite your organization and ultimately to leap frog your competitors. If you don't, they may.

My Son, Wyatt

This is my son Wyatt.

In so few words "my son", there is immense meaning that is unfathomable to those that are not a parent. And for those that were fortunate enough to have helplessly begged for their child's life, there is even greater meaning. It can only be explained with tears of joy.

How To Become a Dysfunctional Team... or Not

Back in 2008 Tom Edison put this Project Team Performance Curve on paper as an expansion to Tuckman's Forming, Storming, Norming, Perfoming model. Edison describes five additional stages that characterize a tipping point, a trans-formative opportunity and the dysfunctional road some teams take to extinction.

Informing
At the pinnacle of a team's success Edison suggests a team is at its informing stage where they should be sharing their experiences, both successes and failures, with the larger organization.  This helps to keep a free flow of ideas, experiences and potentially prompting brainstorming's piggybacking.

Conforming
Next the team moves into a mental state rampant with Group Think, fewer fresh perspectives and innovative ideas. This is what is referred to colloquially as the doldrums or what I like to call the mental state of boredom where you are so busy doing nothing you want to slam your face into the keyboard just to change things up for a few seconds.

Transforming
This is where team transformation happens if dysfunction is identified soon enough. The team's leadership needs to inject a fresh perspective and its associated new innovation into the team.  They can do so on their own by leveraging external resources such as another team in its informing stage or perhaps an outside facilitator like the trusted experts at Thought Ensemble. Come on, you had to see that coming.

I'll leave it to Edison to talk about the other dysfunctional stages and melding of face and keyboard, but needless to say it's bad and you don't want to go down that road. However, the task left to you is figuring out where your team is in Tuckman and Edison's team development life cycle. I challenge you to be honest with yourself and your colleagues and get the help you may need to transform your team before it's too late.

References:
Edison T. The Team Development Life Cycle: A New Look. In: Defense AT&L.

Wondering Where You Stand Financially

The following is a sample view into someone's full portfolio.  Call me if your interested to know how you can get the same level of visibility.

My Myers-Briggs Type

Recently I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test and it deemed me an ISTJ, which stands for Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging.