Decision-making: The Advice Process
New Ways of Working only emerge through practice. There are no shortcuts, manuals, roadmaps, or one-size-fits-all solutions to copy and paste. Adopting progressive ways of working depends on your willingness to experiment and adapt—the Advice Process is an excellent way to start or continue your journey.
Traditional decision-making 🧍♂️
In most organisations, the senior leadership team centralises decision-making power, limiting decisions to a select few at the top and (maybe) some lucky middle managers. Meanwhile, the wider employee base is instructed to follow directions and typically requires approval from top brass before fixing problems or seizing opportunities. While approvals occasionally occur, the prevailing feeling is one of frustration and disempowerment. Decisions frequently come from those distant from customer interactions or critical information, causing promising ideas to be shelved and forgotten.
Over time, this leads to a culture where proposals and innovative thinking are stifled, as they seldom receive the green light. Employees are left to grudgingly accept baffling decisions from higher-ups, which is, to put it mildly, annoying!
⚠️ Traditional top-down decision-making, where a few leaders hoard all the power, is one of the biggest sources of frustration in organisations.
Progressive decision-making 👩🏾🤝👩🏼🧑🏾🤝🧑🏻👩🏾🤝👩🏼🧑🏾🤝🧑🏻
Distributed decision-making, on the other hand, is a tried and tested pattern found in progressive organisations. Recognising that it makes good sense to move control to where the information is held, these organisations decentralise authority that is traditionally concentrated at the top. They understand that involving more people in decision-making not only harnesses collective intelligence but also increases engagement and satisfaction.
However, this approach requires a structured process to ensure it’s quick and teams don’t fall into the trap of seeking deathly consensus—the best way to get nothing done quickly and end up with a compromise that suits nobody. One such process is ‘The Advice Process’ (created by Dennis Bakke), and it is wonderful.
The Advice Process: steps 🔢
Take initiative: When you notice an issue or opportunity, it's your responsibility to act. If you're not the best person to make a decision, seek help from a colleague.
Gather input: Before proposing your decision you may choose to seek input and gather perspectives on the issue or opportunity.
Seek advice on your proposed decision: When you have a clear proposal (you can use this template) you need to seek advice from i) those with expertise on the subject matter, and ii) those who will be meaningfully affected by your proposed decision. If you're unsure who needs to be involved, ask around and chat with your colleagues to identify them.
Make a decision and tell people: After considering all the advice, as is required, make your decision and notify everyone who contributed with their advice.
Et voila.
With the Advice Process in place, everyone is empowered to make decisions, provided they are ready to own the results and have sought insights from those impacted and those with expertise.
Embracing the Advice Process 🧪💡
To effectively implement the Advice Process, those in authority must be truly open to sharing it. Begin by identifying a group willing to embrace this method—remember, this isn't about top-down imposition but about mutual agreement to experiment.
Getting Started:
Introduce the Advice Process to the group, ensuring everyone understands the steps. Feel free to use the guidelines provided here.
Collaboratively design a 'safe to try' experiment. For instance, commit to using the Advice Process for all decisions over four weeks, followed by a review session to reflect on the experience.
Adapt the process as necessary to fit your team's unique dynamics.
Share outcomes and insights with other teams to encourage wider adoption.
Practical Tips and Insights:
There's no need for consultation on decisions that don't impact others.
Strive for timely, practical solutions over perfection.
Set clear deadlines for advice.
Be open to modifying your proposal based on new insights, whether that means adjusting your proposal, forming a task group for further refinement, shelving the idea, or moving forward with the decision and its consequences.
It's natural not to agree with all advice received; consensus is not the goal.
Decisions impacting all staff require input from all staff. Utilise digital tools like Slack or MS Teams for efficiency. Remember to set deadlines for advice.
Communicate which stage of the process you are at, i.e. whether gathering input, seeking advice, or sharing the outcome.
Remember decisions are not set in stone; they can be revisited and revised as needed.
Aim for a culture of continuous improvement.
Avoid assigning blame for unexpected outcomes—fix these together.
Address any instances where decisions are made without consulting relevant experts or affected parties.
Remember, perfection in the Advice Process is not expected on your first attempt.
Continuous practice and commitment to the process will yield significant benefits, enhancing decision-making and engagement across your organisation.
Good luck! And please get in touch if you’d like any advice - I have loads of experience to share 😊
🌐 www.marco.work | LinkedIn | 📕 New Ways of Working Playbook
