How often have you found yourself struggling to make a business-critical decision? In an Oracle survey, a staggering 85% of business leaders said they have suffered from decision distress—regretting, feeling guilty about, or questioning a decision they made in the past year. And 59 percent admitted they face a decision dilemma—not knowing what decision to make—more than once every single day.
Paul Epstein, former NFL executive and bestselling author of The Power of Playing Offense and Better Decisions Faster, spoke with our Dr. Jessica Kriegel about that topic during an episode of Culture Leaders podcast. According to Epstein, indecision is the worst decision of all, and every leader he knows has experienced it for many reasons.
“We’re stressed, we’re anxious, we feel the weight, we’re worried about a negative outcome or what other people are going to think or disapprove of. So, we don’t make the decision,” said Epstein. “If we can solve for indecision, then we can cure the world of this paralysis. And confidence is the gateway for how we make better decisions faster.”
A Results-Based Framework for Making Decisions
Making more confident decisions is possible when every leader in an organization relies on a common, results-based framework to guide their decisions. The Results Pyramid® offers an effective model for this purpose—one that aligns organizational culture so that it produces the experiences that reinforce internal cultural beliefs (for example, “Lead with Compassion” might be a cultural belief at a healthcare organization), leading to actions that deliver desired results.
This approach keeps results top of mind, but asks decision-makers to consider how they are arriving at those results. Again, looking at a healthcare organization, perhaps a leader is asked to cut a program that serves a small segment of the patient population due to current resource restraints. From a numbers perspective, doing so may make perfect sense. But what about for the patients involved?
Could the organization establish a partnership with another healthcare provider to deliver these services jointly and more cost-effectively? Are there any grants from research or other professional organizations that could defray the costs? Could clinical staff do more to educate patients about self-care to potentially wean them off of the current service? By assessing the situation in this way, the organization incorporates its cultural belief of “Leading with Compassion” into the decision-making process in alignment with the results they’ve set out to achieve.
Operationalizing Culture and Its Impact on Decision-Making
Changing how people think and act, which will have a tremendous impact on the decisions they make, is central to operationalizing your culture. In engagements with clients, The Results Pyramid becomes part of an exercise that informs the development of a Culture Equation®, which encapsulates the organization’s purpose, vision, strategic anchors, key results, and cultural beliefs.
Organization-wide alignment around the Culture Equation positions leaders to fully activate their culture to drive results. With it, they can reinforce and operationalize their desired culture, so that employees in every role understand how they are contributing to results, and which experiences, beliefs, and actions will produce desired ones.
Some might compare the Culture Equation to a North Star. “I love North Stars, but North Stars have a problem. The problem is most of us don’t know how to apply a North Star on Monday morning. So, it stays conceptual,” explained Epstein. How did he move from concept to application? “I went through a series of exercises where I started to connect my values to my daily decisions and actions. That’s what I did differently. I literally made it tangible, actionable, and behavioral.”
Streamlining the Decision-Making Process
Establishing an actionable change management framework like the Culture Equation gives your leaders (and all employees) a consistent point of reference for decision-making. Are the actions they’re considering aligned with your organization’s strategy and cultural beliefs? Or are they outliers that might produce results, but not ones that map to your stated goals?
Filtering decisions through this change management framework helps eliminate analysis paralysis, so your leaders can respond faster and more confidently to critical situations. At the same time, working with a framework that easily adapts to a changing strategy extends its usefulness as both a decision-support and productivity tool.
Contact us to learn more about how to promote desired change and adaptability in your organization.
