Decision-making is at the heart of lower hierarchy

Is your vision to build a⁠

🐬 Flat⁠

🐬 Agile⁠

🐬 Empowered⁠

🐬 Adult

🐬 Self-managed⁠

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organisation?⁠

There are various concepts to describe a world where employees are trusted as capable, autonomous adults, with businesses continuing to move away from management⁠ styles designed for factories.

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I see a lot of companies talking about it and aiming for that direction. Are you one of them? If so, a good place to start is looking at DECISION-MAKING.

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In many situations we're holding onto the comfort blanket of leaders doing all the thinking; approvals; checks; senior managers swooping in with random opinions and so on.

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Which means more pressure on already overwhelmed managers, less initiative and motivation from employees.⁠

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⁠Look at your ROLES with the principle of giving people areas of ⁠

💼 ownership where they can make decisions and carry them out without approvals and second-guessing from anyone.

Look at your BOTTLENECKS. When do things start going back and forth. What requires approval. What sort of things do people come to managers for.

🧞 What's the worst that could happen? Remove some of those stoppers.

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Of course it's not about making decisions off the top of your head in isolation. Some, especially less experienced people may need guidance on

🗂️ consulting and getting advice from others. To understand the impact on and requirements of other teams and clients, as relevant, do research, gauge alternate views.⁠

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But once you've considered the right information you go ahead and ⁠

🔮 make the decision.⁠ Nobody needs to validate it.

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To be successful with reducing hierarchy and increasing autonomy this way, it requires:

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✏️ Clarity on boundaries. What are the types of decisions where a person must consult a colleague or get e.g. financial approval.⁠

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✏️ People to be connected and understand the organisation and business. 'This decision will impact on customers and product so I need to discuss with those teams'.⁠

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✏️ Responsibilities to follow people's level of competence. It's not about putting someone in charge of an area that they genuinely aren't ready for.

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But put in place the support for people to build more confidence and autonomy. Coaching helps to learn to make better decisions, assess risks and trust yourself.⁠

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For us leaders, this means getting comfortable at letting go. Allowing a certain amount of risk. Accepting that a decision may not be the one we would have made.⁠

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At Companies in Balance we help clients like you to design roles and organisation structures for the modern world and would be delighted to talk! 🙋🏻‍♀️

Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on unsplash.com