Make Good Decisions Together

There are five steps to make a decision:

1. Find out what different things you can choose to do.
2. Look at what is good and bad about each thing you can do.
3. Pick what you think is best.
4. Do it.
5. See if it had the result you hoped for.

These steps are the same for teams as for individuals. Some steps are easier with a group. Some steps are harder. It is easier for a team to think of more different things they can do because there are more people to come up with ideas. It may also be easier for a team to do what it decided to do, because there are more people to help make it happen.

But it may be harder for a group to agree about what is good and bad about each choice. How people make decisions depends on their needs and interests and what may have happened to them in the past. For each good or bad result that could happen with each decision, you need to think about

• How likely it is to happen, and
• How much it would make your life better or worse.

It is important for each team member to share information that will help the team decide. Tell people everything that can affect how they work or what the team decides to do [C1].

Here are some common problems when groups make decisions together:

• One team member does not agree with the others
• People want the team leader to decide for them
• People say they want what other team members picked in order to get along.

One team member does not agree with the others.

Before the team makes a hard decision, it is important to talk about how the team will pick what is best to do. You can all vote for what you think is best. But then some people may be stuck with a choice they did not vote for. They may not want to work on that goal. Or they may think that action is not the best way to meet the team goal.

Another way that teams pick what they think is best is to work together to find a choice that everyone agrees on. This is sometimes called consensus. A team member who does not agree may go along with the others to try it out. Or the team member may keep the group from making that choice. Then the group must work together to end the conflict. Here are some ways teams work it out:

• The person who does not agree must come up with a new idea that works for everyone.
• The team can bring in a new person to find a new solution or make peace.
• The team can go ahead with the plan and agree that the person does not have to help with that part of the work.
• The person who does not agree may be willing to try it for a short time, if the team agrees to look at the decision again later.

Click here to go to the top of the page.

People want the team leader to decide for them.

Some people may want the team leader to set the goals or make other decisions for the group. So they may try to find out what the team leader thinks is best and just go along with that. Here are some ways to keep the team from looking to you to make the decisions:

• Break into small groups to talk about it. Each group reports to the whole team.
• Have each team member put their ideas on paper and then share them with the group.
• Go around the room and have each person say what they think. The leader's job is to listen for ideas or issues that come up a lot in the group.
• Everyone puts their ideas on papers without names. Then the group does not know which idea came from the team leader.
• Use a rule that says that everyone must agree before a decision is made.

Click here to go to the list of common problems.

People say they want what other team members picked in order to get along.

When people care about their team-mates, they may make staying friends more important than making good decisions [C8]. Here is how it works. One team member speaks up about a goal or a solution to a problem. Each member is asked what they think. No one wants to be the first person to say no to the goal or solution. So they all go along with the decision even though they do not think it is a good one. Then when things go wrong, they say they knew it would not work. It looked like everybody agreed, but nobody did.

There are at least two ways to keep this problem from happening:

1. All team members have to be honest. And all members have to agree that it is OK to like different answers.
2. Always try to come up with at least two ways to solve a problem before you decide together what to do [C1].

Click here to go to the top of the page.