Last week I was given a proper dressing down by some members of our team for making a particular decision in an undemocratic way. This decision would have affected how some of the team worked, but because a quick decision was needed I pressed ahead without spending much time talking it through with them first. Cue a flood of emails from the team, and some rapid back-pedaling and apologising from me.
A quick decision is only any use if it's executed quickly as well. And that's where democratic decisions can outperform command and control. It takes longer to make the decision because of the time invested in consulting, discussing, and perhaps voting. But once the decision has been made, it will be more readily accepted, better understood, and more thought-through. And that leads to better results, faster. It also avoids the fear, uncertainty and doubt than naturally arises when decisions are passed on without the people affected having a chance to raise their concerns and provide input.
In the end, we made a collective decision as a team to go ahead with my proposal, but having discussed the team's concerns we expanded it and came up with a solution that will be better for them, and a better decision for the company too.
So a lesson learnt. Even when the pressure is on, it pays to hold true to democratic principles.
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