Make Great Decisions by Pissing People Off

This little man is very pissed at the decision the parks department made. (Source: Unsplash)

It’s not about the decision. It’s about how you make the decision.

For my first semester in grad school, I enrolled in a class called ‘Strategic Decision Making.’ I went into the class haughtily, telling myself that I already knew what there was to know about decision-making.

I’ve been occupying leadership roles since high school, I’ve participated in organizing conferences that over 20K people have attended, and I’ve launched several successful community organizations. Psh, decision making.

But what this class taught me was that I was making choices independently, reaching verdicts hurriedly, and acting defensively against anyone who disagreed with me. I was limiting myself and my teams to sub-par decisions and tuning out options that would produce better results.

Here are 4 takeaways from my class:

1. Let people get pissed…constructively.

Decision-making isn’t about agreeing with each other, it’s about creating constructive conflict. The more conflict, the better. People tend to get really ‘passionate’ about an issue (you know what I mean), causing the conversation to get heated, and that’s okay. It just means their heart and soul is in it. We like those people.

Embrace these moments, but don’t let them create a rift or become toxic. Work through them by asking the right questions and encouraging everyone to actively listen to each other. If they can’t listen, they shouldn’t be in the room.

Conflict allows for options to emerge and a productive debate to occur, revealing the positives, negatives, and possible results of different decisions. Often, it presents a clear way forward.

2. Piss off the right people.

It’s imperative to have a diversity of people in the room. People with different life experiences, skill sets, and managerial levels — including those at the bottom of the totem pole — each bring something unique to the table, fostering favorable outcomes.

If everyone at your table agrees with you then it’s time to bring in some new folks or reevaluate your company culture.

When we make decisions, we are only able to draw from our life experiences and personal knowledge…