Jim Collins is widely known for his best-selling book, Good to Great. As a professor and researcher he provides some great insight into making decisions.
Great decisions come from saying, "I don't know." Collins, "Which is best? Saying you don't know when you've already make up your mind? Or presuming to know when you don't and, therefore, lying to yourself? Or speaking the truth, which is: 'I don't yet know?'"
The higher the question/statements ratio, the better. Leaders need to learn how to ignite debate by using Socratic questions (welcoming others to push back and creating an environment where they want to really understand.)
Deciding is not about consensus. Debate is good and often has conflict but in the end the leader makes the call. Collins, "No major decision we've studied was ever taken at a point of unanimous agreement."
Great decisions come from external awareness. What would it take to make organizations externally aware?
Even huge decisions decide only a tiny fraction of the outcome. Collins, "They're more like six of 100 points. And there's a whole bunch of others that are like 0.6 or 0.006."
Think long term. Real leaders manage for the quarter-century.
You can make mistakes-even big ones-and prevail. That's a relief!
(Adapted from "Jim Collins on Tough Calls" Fortune)
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