Decision Making Series: Part 3 - Communicating the Decision

“Decision Leadership”

GAME PLAN: COMMUNICATING THE DECISION

Now that you’ve applied some auditing and scorecarding of your decisions (Part 1 of this series) and properly structured your decision tools, timing, and course correcting, it’s critical you take all this hard work and communicate the decision for maximum impact.

Please don’t ever forget that your decisions are the currency of your leadership and the ways you communicate how and why you made the decision will most likely be the difference in increasing or decreasing your leadership currency.

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CHALKING THE FIELD: COMMUNICATING

When communicating decisions, the people you are communicating to will have a series of questions you need to answer. The good news is there are only a handful of questions in most any language and they are quite recognizable as:

• Why?

• Who?

• What?

• When?

• Where?

• How?

Answer these questions after doing all your Part 1 and Part 2 homework and craft the questions and answers in a storytelling way using your own voice/style and you will be 80%+ of the way to increasing your leadership currency.

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PLAYBOOK(s): COMMUNICATING

1. Start with the “Why” of the Decision

2. Storytell the Analysis

3. Be Transparent with the Risk Level (1-Way vs 2-Way Doors)

4. Connect the Decision to Real People and Real Outcomes

5. Explain Why Now? Or When?

6. Memorialize the Decision

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Play 1: Start with the “Why?” of the Decision

Describe the purpose of the decision and/or what the decision is “solving for.” Be clear as to “Why Now?” Tie the decision back to company or team “1st Principles” whenever possible.

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Play 2: Storytell the Analysis

You have done so much work with great tools like the Urgent vs Important Eisenhower Matrix and the Priority Equations and the Risk Matrix Scorecard. Now it’s time to do a summary walk-through for your audience of how the decision was made by using these analytical tools. This type of transparency with your broader company and teams will pay huge dividends toward creating a strong decision making culture inside your company.

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Play 3: Transparency Enables Trust

Be transparent and authentic with the fact that the decision may end up in that 20% unknown or “bad outcome” zone. It’s now time to communicate and pre-wire the fact this decision will be course corrected as necessary. Take the time to be transparent to your audience why no decisions are perfect and you will be focused on decision outcomes with a goal of doing more of what’s working, doing less of what’s not, or changing the decision entirely if the outcome of the decision is a surprise vs the assumptions.

Try storytelling the future course corrections with your audience with IF/THEN analysis and remind your audience of the success metrics from which you will evaluating the decision outcome.

IF good, THEN…

IF bad, THEN…

Also remind the audience again how very few decisions can or should attempt to perfect, the 80/20 rule of decision making creates learning and improvement and enables high velocity, high quality decisions.

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Play 4: Connect the Decision to Who is Impacted

More often than not, your decisions are impacting real people in some form or another. Lean into the “Who” of the decision. Tell their story and show empathy when required.

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Play 5: Explain Why Now? Or When?

Humans generally don’t like change even though change is required for improving anything in life or business. So don’t forget to communicate “Why Now?” with respect to your decision and to the change that is required.

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The remaining play and Rands in Response are epic below…but you have to subscribe