Decision Making
A weak man has doubts before a decision, a strong man has them afterwards.
~Karl Kraus
Decision-making may be the most challenging task any administrator must execute. Many times the right decision is not the most popular one.
Decisions must be made consistently and fairly. Data are often useful to help justify or qualify the decision that has been made. It is often hard to challenge a decision that has been made based on data.
There are times that a decision needs to be made firmly and quickly, but if it is discovered that a wrong decision has been made, then it should be changed just as quickly and firmly.
There are six decision-making options (source unknown-received in Negotiations in Education EAD669)
Spontaneous Agreement - solution is favored by everyone and seems to happen automatically.
Be wary of spontaneous agreement for making important decisions.
One Person Decides - the group decides to refer to one person to make the decision.
Many groups ignore the fact that many decisions are best made by one person.
Compromise - a middle position is then created that incorporates idea from both sides.
A compromise creates feelings of both win and loose.
Multi-voting - rank ordering the options, based on a set of criteria, will clarify the best course of action.
Multi-voting is a good tool if there are a lot of options or a lot of people involved.
Majority Voting - asking people to choose the option they favor, once clear choices have been identified.
The quality of any voting exercise increases dramatically if it's preceded by a thorough discussion.
Consensus Building - generates a decision about which everyone says, "I can live with it."
Consensus building creates participation and "buy-in" to the generated solutions.
It's less important to have unanimity than it is to be making the right decisions and doing the right thing, even though at the outset it may seem lonesome.
~Secretary Donald Rumsfeld