decisions are a process

A while ago I completed the Decision Making Intensive workshop by AORTA. Making a decision as a group often takes incredible patience and no small amount of skill. I've been in groups that stumble to a resolution even where our values and goals are well-aligned. AORTA's five-week course could have gone even longer for all the insight they had to share with us.

Their process is perfect for a linear thinker like me. A facilitator would guide the group through each step of the process. Skipping a step or trying to do two steps at once will make everything harder. I'll try to summarize the democratic decision making process they shared with us. They offer a free zine if you want a bit more detail about each step.

1. Identify and learn about the problem. All participants should understand exactly what we're trying to solve for. What do we want to be different after we make a decision?
2. Generate possible options. The group should come up with many ideas to solve our problem. There are no wrong answers here! In a true brainstorm, we save our edits and critiques for later.
3. Identify constraints and criteria. Where are our limits? What can't we do, whether for time or resource reasons? AORTA recommends swapping steps 2 and 3 if your constraints are significant.
4. Narrow down options. Apply the limitations the group generated and compare them to their ideas. What's out because the ideas aren't possible? What do we think about what's left?
5. Officially make the decision. With the information we have, what's the best course of action? The group can decide from the options according to whatever process they use. That could be majority voting, consensus, fist to five, dictatorial rule, what have you.
6. Take action. Success in this process is simple. The decision works if people inside and out of the group are clear on who made the decision and how they made it. Then, we carry out what the group decides!

As you might imagine, this straightforward process is not always straightforward! Here are a few lessons I found useful for a successful resolution.

there’s a Step 0

How do we know we're making the right decisions? What if we shouldn't be letting an autocratic dictator decide for us? AORTA encourages us to consider a few parameters before we begin.

• Impact: How many people will this decision affect? How long will the effects last? How much is at stake?
• Complexity: Going into this, how much do we all disagree? Do people feel safe to disagree? Are we starting angry?
• Preparedness: Are we all informed enough to decide? Are we good at deciding together or is this our first real attempt?
• Logistics: How much time do we have before we must make a decision? Can we afford to be methodical? Are we sure our voting method/dictator of choice is the right one for this decision?

A lot of these questions boil down to "have we thought this through before we begin?" If the vibes are off, the process may falter. Answers to these questions help set the stage for a decision that people will respect.

strong decisions need the right conditions

The training encouraged us to challenge our beliefs about how we make good decisions. These ideas can feel virtuous but they can also cause unintentional harm.

The people most impacted shouldn't always be the sole deciders. This was a challenge to the advice process I mentioned in previous posts. People closest to a problem can still misunderstand it. They may lack context or don't have the skills or resources to carry out the decision they make. Instead, the whole group should decide the best way forward.

There are many ways to make a decision. Consensus doesn't always lead to the best outcomes. A hierarchy can make reasoned and broadly popular choices. Uneven power dynamics can still tamper with how a group makes a "fair" decision. Seeing these approaches as beyond reproach makes it hard to see when the scales have tipped.

facilitation is a role

Facilitators do more than keep the process on track or on time. AORTA believes a facilitator's greatest contribution is discernment. The facilitator structures complex decisions into manageable pieces. They monitor group morale and lay out the stakes of each step. A process with no facilitator, or an unclear one, can easily fall off the rails. Too many people claiming the role can have the same effect. That also means we need some agreement before we can step in to lead the process. Facilitators can offer proposals on how to proceed and see how the group responds.

decisions, decisions

Some decisions do indeed come easy. We all have a set of values and priorities that we use to make sense of the world and our place in it. But there may be times when we have many equally-good paths before us. In these times, may we understand the problem, weigh all our options, and take action together.