31 Who, Need, and When

Whose Decision Is This, Anyway?

You've worked hard in getting clear on a headscratcher and concluding the best solution for it. Everyone on the team is ready to go, but there's one more potential issue: you may need someone else's approval to proceed. Although you likely have authority to make some decisions, not all of them are your call, perhaps because you need additional budget, resources, or capital expenses that are beyond your authority. Maybe you need approval to shift priorities enough to begin. If it's not your decision, you go to your manager for approval. He or she too makes many decisions, but unfortunately, his or her response is sometimes, “Oh, that's not my call. We'll have to ask my manager.” Then sometimes, the next response is, “Oh, we need several people to approve this.” Sometimes, it gets even worse in a large company. Then the response might be, “Gee, I'm not sure who needs to approve this.”

In most cases, a single person is responsible for the decision. Others, such as peers or staff, may be consulted for opinions and concurrence, but at the end of the day, it's usually up to one person to decide whether something is a go or no-go. Some organizations have voting committees, and decisions need a majority—or occasionally even unanimous—affirmative vote to get approval. For example, a steering committee's purpose is to control a company's direction. It accomplishes this by saying yea or nay on projects and initiatives and by setting priorities. Committees usually have a chairperson—often the senior executive—who says yea or nay after listening to the committee's views. In any case, it's crucial to know who will make the decision: whether it's you, another individual, or a committee. You must appeal to decision makers, because they're the ones who weigh factors, including the criteria to make the call.

Need, Again!

Similar to need in clarity—why the headscratcher needs to be solved—the need in decisions identifies why someone has to make this decision. It also includes what that particular decision maker's need is for deciding. Many times it's because he or she is accountable for the results related to the headscratcher. If the problem isn't solved or the goal is not achieved, his or her personal performance is on the line. If the decision maker disassociates from a need—that is, if he or she doesn't think the decision affects him or her at all—then it's much harder to get a decision from that person. Your proposal just sits on a desk, waiting for it to reach the top of the stack—someday. If you want decisions made quickly, ensure that the decision maker is clear on how the decision will satisfy needs.

For example, you've concluded that you'll need to hire another person to produce the forecasted product quantity. After this conclusion, you make other conclusions, such as opening a hiring requisition. Who approves the decision to hire someone? Perhaps it's your manager. The human resources (HR) department usually plays a part as well, because a new hire adds head count to the overall employee base. Therefore, you need two approvals. You'll present the need for the business using the premise elements of your conclusion and persuade your manager, as well as HR, that the business need is there. Your manager is responsible for the department's results, so he or she has a personal stake and a need to ensure product availability. HR's need is to ensure that employees have an opportunity to grow and perhaps move across the company. They must also keep the head count within the overall company strategy. Knowing this, you may have to show how approving your requisition can help them satisfy their need as well.

When Does This Decision Need to Be Made?

Another key component to decision making is identifying by when the decision needs to be made. If you've concluded to watch a movie that starts at 8:30 PM at the local theater, then you need to go to the movie by that time or you're going to miss it. Figuring out when a decision is due is easy with time-dependent choices like this; if you don't make the decision by a certain point, then the headscratcher is automatically defaulting to no-go—no action taken, or no change in condition, because no decision was reached to affect anything.

Because time-dependent decisions have a clear timeline, always ask if the decision has a definitive stop—sometimes called a drop-dead date. After then, it's too late. The difficulty with time-independent decisions lies in establishing a deadline, because most initiatives take time to implement. If the time to implement a conclusion is four months, the decision to start implementation would have to be four months before you need it completed. There's wiggle room here, because the decision maker might assume (perhaps mistakenly) that a few days' delay—or even a week or more—won't affect the schedule.

The worst response you can give or get when someone asks, “When does this have to be decided?” is “As soon as possible (ASAP).” What does ASAP even mean? It's certainly not very clear; it could mean when I can get to it, when I have nothing better to do, today, tomorrow, or next week. ASAP is not a date and makes the real date unclear. Set a date for the decision.

One reason to identify and set a date is that it generates a need. If you commit to a date, and one of your beliefs is to do what you say you'll do, then you have artificially created a need—and now you have to decide. It's a purposeful setup, so remember, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Make sure you have a date by when the decision needs to be made.

Getting Started with Who, Need, and When

Here are some ideas about when and how to focus on the who, need, and when for a decision:

• Identify the decision maker as soon as you reach a conclusion: The person responsible for making a decision depends upon the conclusion you reach. If your headscratcher relates to a marketing program, you might be able to make the decision for an ad's copy; but your manager may have to decide where to place the ad, and your director may have to approve the budget. Before you invest too much time in the details of your conclusion, get an early read from the decision maker with respect to any considerations about your conclusion. This ties closely into the criteria you'll read about in the next chapter.
• Ensure that there is a need: Although you may have avoided the question of need during clarity, you can't dodge it now. You and your company have many things to do, and your decisions initiate actions that require resources, money, and time. The decision maker will use all three sparingly—so unless you can identify the need, you risk a negative decision or at the very least a wait or hold.
• Identify a date when, if past, it's too late to decide: Dates can drive need. If the decision date isn't definitive, then need doesn't exist now—even if there is a need. There's simply no immediate pressure to decide. A later need with no date is really a no need, so set a realistic, justified date by when you must make a decision to satisfy the need. If you cannot, then reconsider why you're suggesting this initiative in the first place.