Decision-making in Teams

An interesting fact of my (work) life is that I teach a course on decision making, in particular, rapid decision making. The reason this is interesting is because if you asked anyone who knows me really well, they'll tell you that I only make decisions when I'm forced to - most of the time, I'll let others make the decision, and I'll go along. In a team setting, this usually is portrayed as not having initiative or not being a leader, but I see my role as more of a "watch, listen & then respond" instead of a "speak, speak louder, & wait for everyone to follow". I won't be the first one to suggest a course of action, but I'll certainly give my opinion on the various options.

As my course on rapid decision making suggests, people have different decision-making tendencies, some more extreme than others. Recognizing your decision-making tendencies can help you find a balance when making decisions. One good way to balance your own tendencies is to work with someone that has different tendencies, but to work together so that the combination results in a balance of the two. As you work with people on a team, you develop a better sense of their decision-making tendencies, and then can use their strengths and support the weaknesses by applying others' strengths. Together, with good communication and respect of different tendencies, team members can produce a solid, well-balanced decision that everyone agrees on.

In our case, when a good idea presents itself, it's not hard to jump on the bandwagon and move towards the realization of the idea. We all seem to work for "the common good", shown in particular by selecting an idea that was relevant to all of us. Once the idea was chosen, then the focus could shift on generating ideas for how to implement our topic. As in most collaborative teams, when the focus is on the topic/goal of the team instead of the individuals, much can be accomplished by building off the ideas of others. I believe our team will be successful in continuing to work together, make decisions for the benefit of the group, and producing a result that is greater than the sum of the individual efforts.