Communicating the Decision

Last week we talked about the "Art of the Decision".  This week I want to spend time on the second most difficult task many face after they have made a decision. Namely, communicating that decision to their team in a way that all understand it regardless of whether they agree with it or not. Many managers overlook one of the most important aspects of the decision-making process: communicating the decision to everyone involved in and affected by it. After going through the (sometimes hard) process of arriving at the decision, they fail to properly plan how they will share the decision, poorly communicate the information, waste time, and cause unnecessary confusion.

Or, even worse, they lose some of their nerve when it comes to sharing the decision with others and only communicate partial information to "avoid" anything that might either cause some to be unhappy or give rise to a conflict. (Keep in mind when you try to avoid conflict it sometimes leads to conflict.)

Follow these steps to turn your decisions into a productive reality within your organization:

1. Take the time to create your plan as to how you will communicate the decision. Start with the desired outcome and work backwards from there. In this way you are more likely to consider all of the pertinent facts. Never "wing it" when it comes to communicating a decision you have made. Winging it is a guaranteed way to get "lost in the weeds" and send the wrong message, making the situation worse.
2. Part of your plan must include a complete list of all those to whom you must communicate your decision. This list should include those who will be responsible for implementing it, as well as those who are affected by it. This step may help you avoid having multiple meetings with "different" audiences. The more meetings you have in front of different audiences, the more likely different "versions" will be heard. This will create confusion and false starts.
3. Prior to any broad announcement, you may want to go one-on-one with those who are affected or impacted by the decision or who had supported a different solution. This private discussion would be a good way to help explain your "why" of the decision, allow them to "vent", and solicit their buy-in. In this way, once a broad announcement is made, there is a uniform support for it.
4. When you finally make the broad announcement you need to explain the thinking behind the final decision, the desired outcome you wanted to achieve, the facts you considered, the alternatives that you considered, and the criteria you used to arrive at your decision. By explaining how you arrived at the decision helps you, as the leader, build trust with your team and helps them to have more confidence in you as a decision maker.
5. If you have bad news to tell, tell it. Do not try to spin the truth or facts to make delivering the message easier for you. Your team wants the truth. Give it to them, but be professional, considerate, and comprehensive.
6. Stay focused on the issue at hand. Don't let other issues or challenges distract you or affect your perspective. Never let a difficult "personality" get in the way of communicating the right message.
7. When you deliver the decision, you also need to set new expectations about any changes in policies or procedures, or individual's duties or responsibilities. These changes must be explained in the clearest and most complete way possible. You must communicate these new expectations as well and make sure all impacted understand that they will be held accountable to comply with them. Once a decision is made, it's time to adapt and move forward. You can't allow team members to keep going back to revisit these issues hoping to go back to "the way it was". Everyone needs to focus on the work to be done now!