Where is this “new normal”? As we approach the halfway point of 2020, we can’t help but reflect on how challenging this year has been. The ground has significantly shifted beneath us and disturbed the structure, continuity, and control that is so necessary for us to function naturally. Many are feeling like they lost their anchor and are experiencing higher levels of anxiety and stress. Our routines have been turned inside out and are challenging so many aspects of our normal critical thinking patterns. The adversity presents many day-to-day challenges, including one that we will rely upon to navigate through this – decision-making. Uncertainty has undoubtedly caused decision-making to become more complex and difficult. Do you find yourself struggling to make decisions that would have been routine a few short months ago? Or, do you find yourself questioning decisions after you’ve made them? You are not alone. In recent weeks I have had many conversations with clients and professional connections regarding their decision-making challenges. Uncertainty has and will continue to challenge our decision-making processes as we navigate forward.
Much Uncertainty Remains. We are now over 90 days into this period of disruption and there remains much we do not understand. How will our work environments continue to change? How soon will the COVID be treatable by a vaccine? When will individuals and organizations be comfortable with air travel? How long will it take people to be comfortable in large gatherings like conventions? Will the virus return next flu season? How will consumer behavior change? How should our business model be modified to ensure continuity? Of course, we are continuously bombarded with information from so called experts with very different opinions and views on how things will bear out. It is not uncommon to hear multiple different and conflicting perspectives on the same topic. The reality is, no one really knows what the “new normal” will look like. Uncertainty is a part of today’s normal. So, we must accept that and determine how best to adapt to it. All of these dynamics make decision-making quite challenging. Further, heightened stakeholder expectations for a return to normal puts additional pressure on leaders to make good decisions.
Shifting the Decision-Making Paradigm – Strong leaders and organizations have well developed decision-making processes that served them well in normal times. However, the dynamics are now very different and, in many situations, will require a much different process. Making critical decisions under the pressure of a crisis is hard. The additional pressure makes effectively balancing the need for progress with the risk of uncertainty especially challenging. Following are four considerations to develop a more situation oriented decision-making process:
1. Make More Short-term/Low-Risk Decisions – With the situation evolving so rapidly it is important to balance information with decision-making risk. The more information you have the better you understand the situation and risk, and the more conviction you have in your decision. However, in today’s environment, uncertainty represents more risk to decision-making. So offset that by making a series of more frequent low-risk decisions with the best information you have can help you advance progress. This will necessitate evaluating new information and making decisions more frequently. But the small decisions you make will produce incremental results that can accumulate and have meaningful impact over time.
2. Challenge Your Team to Rise-up – Few are motivated by uncertainty and chaos, but many are challenged by it. Tap into your team’s appetite for challenge to embark on a process to identify your most important issues facing your organization and collaborate to find solutions. People are generally quite inspired to solve problems that no one has solved before. Consider challenging your team to rise up and lead the way to this “new normal”. Further, engaging your team in a formal and purpose-driven, and collaborative process will help them recognize the need for a new and different mindset as well as trigger creative thinking when it is most needed. Encourage them to be open-minded and to get ideas any and everywhere. Pay attention at restaurants, gyms, places of worship, etc. They are having to get creative quickly and learn how to adapt. Solicit ideas from your employees, professional connections, and friends. Learning from others will help you make decisions more quickly and accelerate progress.
3. Strive for Progress Not Perfection – What our society and organizations need more than anything right now is progress. The more uncertain the situation is the more likely it is that mistakes will be made. It is very important that leadership empower their teams to make decisions and expect some failures. Organizations cannot afford their leaders to be paralyzed with fear and indecision. But making smaller more frequent decisions enable a quicker recovery. Said another way, fail fast, and continue to make decisions with the best information available. Attempting to try to make perfect decisions today will only slow progress, frustrate many, and produce disappointing results. So, create an expectation of achieving progress, not perfection.
4. Focus on Learnings – Lastly, it is very important to keep a pulse on progress. If smaller more frequent decisions are made it is necessary to have more immediate feedback loops to identify progress and failures. If we make three small decisions a day for three days as opposed to one large decision, we have tripled our learning opportunities. In times of uncertainty, learning can be more crucial to advancing progress than anything. Because learning over time will bring more clarity to the situation. More clarity will enable the organization to resume making bigger and bolder decisions again.
Decision-making has always been an imperfect process that usually benefits from more information. The more information you have the better decisions you usually are able to make. So, it is counterintuitive that we must now make decisions with such a high degree of uncertainty. But that is precisely the challenge at hand. I wish you much success as you continue to work through these challenging times. If there is anything that I can do to assist you, please contact me.
Corona Consulting Group, LLC., d/b/a PeakFormance Leadership Consulting, advises executives and organizations on how to develop high-performing leaders and teams. Joe can be reached at joe@peakformanceconsulting.com.