Making Decisions As A Team

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December 31, 2019

It’s hard for everyone to agree, especially in the workplace. It seems that there will always be someone who isn’t happy when it comes to decisions. While it might be true that you can’t completely please everyone, you can compromise. In order to make the best decision, it is essential to hear everyone’s input so a team can collectively decide the best outcome. Making decisions as a team will provide greater satisfaction in the workplace rather than having one or two people decide.

The first step of deciding as a team is to recognize and define the problem. What decision needs to be made and why? Who is it going to effect? What are the possible risks? It’s important to know these answers before starting so that you can come up with potential ideas for a solution. Once you figure out what the problem is you can get to work on creating a solution viable for your whole team.

Next, the most important step is to collect input from everyone on the team. More often than not, most everyone will have something to say regarding a decision made in a group. Collecting ideas from everyone gives a group insight from different perspectives and it provides solutions that may have not been thought of if one or two people were making a decision. It is important to listen to all ideas even if they seem ridiculous because it is very possible for a creative solution to come from an atypical suggestion. After you receive suggestions from everyone, compile a list and hold a meeting to go over them.

After this, hold a group discussion where you go over the list of suggestions. At this time allow both positive and negative comments from people regarding how they feel each solution would work for the problem. Take note of which suggestions hold the most positive reactions among the team and discuss these options in-depth. Find out why your team likes these particular options and why. It is possible to take the best features and form a new option as well. After discussing the best solutions and potentially coming up with a new one on the spot it is time to pick the option that the majority of the team agrees is the best solution to the problem.

Finally, once the majority of people have come to an agreement during the discussion a decision can be made. The decision may not have a 100% agreement in all areas, but if everyone on the team agrees with some part of the final outcome then it can be considered a success. A final decision should have mainly positive comments, but a few negative comments are fine too as it is impossible to please everyone. The final decision will most likely be a compromise between many suggestions. The best solutions typically come from various ideas from multiple people.

It is important to make decisions as a team. It gives the opportunity for the best solution to a problem to be heard and agreed upon, while allowing all members to feel valued. Using a team to make a decision ensures that you will get to hear suggestions from many perspectives. No two people think alike and it is very possible for someone to think of something that doesn’t even occur to the other person. The process of making a decision as a group provides high satisfaction among team members as well. It takes multiple factors and points of view into consideration, so it allows a solution to be made that fits everyone’s needs in the workplace. Are you still wondering about workplace diasgreements and what can become of them? Check out the article Why Disagreement Can Be the Key to Building Consensus!

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