What is Collaborative Decision Making?

What is collaborative decision making?

Collaborative decision making, also known as group decision making, is the process of gathering input from relevant colleagues and using it to make important decisions. In a business, a collaborator or partner is any person or organization that has an interest in a company’s operations. For example, if you’re deciding whether to create a new product, you can ask for feedback from your product designers, set up a focus group of consumers in your target audience or give investors a chance to share their opinions.

What are the benefits of making collaborative decisions?

Using a collaborative decision-making style has several benefits for companies of all sizes. These are a few of the most common.

Increased transparency

Transparency is the process of being honest about what’s happening in your business. When a company is transparent, employees and other collaborators don’t have to wonder about what’s going on behind the scenes. You can’t share everything, of course, but you can be as open and honest as possible. When you use collaborative decision making, you can let other people know what’s happening and then ask for their input, increasing transparency.

Higher levels of employee buy-in

When you make a decision, you want employees to believe that the change is necessary for the business to succeed. This is known as employee buy-in. You can’t please 100% of employees 100% of the time, but asking for input makes it more likely that team members will embrace your vision. As a result, collaborative decision making may increase employee buy-in.

Better decisions

If you make decisions without asking other people for input, it’s easy to be influenced by your own knowledge and experiences. Collaborative decision making can increase diversity and give you access to multiple perspectives, which may help you avoid mistakes.

Steps in the collaborative decision-making process

The collaborative decision-making process has several steps:

1. Identify relevant collaborators

Before you make a decision, take time to identify relevant collaborators, such as employees, customers, investors and community members. Here’s an example:

Imagine that you’re responsible for making budget cuts. You can do a reduction in workforce or slash your department’s expenses for the next fiscal year. Both options have the potential to affect employees and their families. Slashing expenses can affect some of your vendors, while laying off employees may have an impact on your local economy. This demonstrates how important it is to seek input from other people before you make critical decisions.

2. Generate a list of options

The good thing about collaborative decision making is that it can help you generate ideas you never even considered. For example, instead of laying off employees or slashing your budget to the bone, perhaps you can create a new revenue stream to offset recent losses. If you don’t involve other people in the decision-making process, then you may not be aware of all the options available to you.

During this step, meet with team members regularly. If necessary, you can survey your customers or set up a focus group to get feedback from consumers in your target market. At this stage, you want to come up with as many ideas as possible. You can assess each option in the next step of the process.

3. Evaluate each option

Now that you have several options, you can considerthe resources needed to implement each one. For example, does your company have the funds needed to launch a new product or hire a marketing expert? Do your employees have the skills needed to make your idea a reality? If not, then you can remove that option from your list of possibilities.

It’s also important to consider the amount of time you have to make a decision. If you need to cut $1,000 in expenses from your budget, that’s something you might do rather quickly. If you need to make up for a $50,000 loss, however, you’ll likely need much more time to implement a plan.

4. Make a decision

Now it’s time to use the information you gathered during the previous step to determine which course of action is most likely to help you reach your goals. For example, if it comes down to doing a reduction in your workforce or making significant budget cuts, you need to think about which option is likely to have the greatest impact on your company.

5. Follow up with collaborators

Once you make a decision, you’ll want to follow up with key collaborators before you move on to the next project. You need them to support the decision and encourage other people to embrace the change. If possible, ask collaborators for feedback about the decision-making process, such as how they would improve it or what problems they noticed when you were identifying and evaluating potential solutions to your problem.

Tips for implementing collaborative decision making

If you’re interested in using collaborative decision making, following these tips may help make the transition a success:

Make sure everyone understands what’s at stake. If collaborators believe that you value their input, they may be more likely to provide the feedback you need to make critical decisions.
Don’t eliminate potential solutions until the evaluation stage. It may be tempting to dismiss an idea as “too difficult” or “too expensive,” but don’t start evaluating options when you’re still gathering information. You might miss out on an opportunity to improve your organization.

Let collaborators know what to expect during meetings, focus groups and other events. Some people need time to come up with their best ideas, so it’s helpful to provide advance notice of what you’ll be discussing. For example, you may want to hand out a meeting agenda for employees or tell focus group participants what they can expect during each session.

What is Collaborative Decision Making?