I’ve really been remiss at posting on organization development (I like to call it organizational excellence) topics, which I am passionate about. I was catching up on the September Harvard Business Review and this article really resonated (“Stop Wasting Valuable Time” by Michael Mankins). In it Mankins cites research he did that indicates that top managers in large organizations (we’re talking $1 billion companies) spend around 3 hours per month on strategy development and approval. Even much of that 3 hours is wasted due to poor meeting habits (poor agenda-setting, no structure, no decision making rigor or accountability, etc.). Mankins makes 7 very good suggestions to help “take back” this lost time. They are: 1) Deal with operations separately from strategy; 2) Focus on decisions, not on discussions; 3) Measure the real value of every item on the agenda; 4) Get issues off the agenda as quickly as possible; 5) Put real choices on the table; 6) Adopt common decision-making processes and standards; and 7) Make decisions stick. May favorite on this list (other than number 7 which, let’s face it, describes management’s whole reason for existence, doesn’t it?) is number 5 – put real choices on the table. He suggests that you have at least 3 choices before you can make a decision. That is what I teach too. If you have only one choice, you have no choice. If you have two choices you have a dilemma. Only when you have three choices can you actually make a decision. Next time you are facing an organizational problem force yourself to come up with at least three possible solutions, then decide from those choices – sometimes just forcing yourself to come up with the new options will focus your thinking much more clearly and will make your first “choice” even better.
