All work involves continuous decision making it is just that we are so unaware of the routine decisions that we make that we don’t recognize them as decisions. Even first time decisions can have a preset approach that can lead to more efficiency.

When a Steering Management Team is involved in making open broad decisions the leader should consider the following process.
1. Prepare for the meeting by visualizing possible alternatives then write down the key impact items for each alternative. Try to assess the size of each impact item and determine where more information is required.
2. In the meeting bring up each of the possible alternatives and call for other alternatives. Review the key impact items for each alternative and quickly eliminate nonviable alternatives. Try to narrow the alternatives to two or three and end the meeting by identifying all the key items where background data is required. The final decision will be based on the results of the background data and reviewed at the next meeting. In the above approach you should allow time for first time decisions but you should never try to put a time limit on them because the quality of the decision outweighs the time spent in making the decision.
Routine decisions are entirely a different matter they can be made efficiently.

The following is an example of routine decision making. A roofing company that replaces asphalt shingles on homes provides estimates to customers. The estimates involve mostly routine decisions. When rare first time decisions are made they quickly become another routine decision. The key impact items in each decision are: driving distance; one story or two story; roof slope, low or high; number of gables; and type of shingles, simple or special. Estimates can be calculated using a simple matrix chart format allowing the estimate to be simply picked off the charts and totaled during a phone call with a customer. Note that all first time decisions are added to the matrix charts and become routine in future estimates. You can think of most first time decisions as simply a routine decision with some new added element.

Lower level decision making, those made by Work Improvement Teams (WIT) focused on improving their work processes, are another example of first time decisions. Decisions should be pushed down in the organization as far as practical. WITs usually meet once a week for an hour. This time is primarily spent in finding ways to improve the function’s processes this involves the collection of data and the development of Process Flow charts leading to the decision for the improved method. The important element is that time is provided for making decisions and the process should not be rushed.

One of the best examples of a WIT making routine decisions is the CBS TV show NCIS. Please ignore the Bloopers and the Behind the Scenes Videos and concentrate on the team meeting scenes, yes they are there. Pick a scene where Gibbs the team leader walks on to the set with the agents Tony, Ziva and McGee. Notice in particular how each responds spewing forth the information collected about the case while Gibbs simply nodes in the direction of each agent to obtain his input. The entire meeting lasts for no longer than a couple of minutes when a decision for the next step is made. This can happen because of the skill and expertise of the members of the team in making routine decisions and all that flashy computer technology they use. You may be taken back by the urgency of the moment thinking that the above scene only applies to Homeland Security. But this can happen anywhere in government by the driving force of the organization’s mission and the WITs determination to get things done backed by the oversight of the Steering Management Team.

You can find short scenes of NCIS on: Youtube