Decision Making By Teams Is Key To Success In The Future of Work

The days of the lone wolf are long gone. The arguments that it takes too long to include diverse opinions do not hold water.

Research by Cloverpop states that decisions are 87% more successful when made by teams. In addition diverse teams increase the success factor of solid decision making by 60%.

The key reason that team decision making is a future of work success factor is similar to the power of crowdsourcing except in this case you are ‘team sourcing’ solutions within the company.

Teams that follow an inclusive process of diverse generational input along with diverse gender/personality/cultural input make decisions two times faster and cut meeting times in half. In short productivity skyrockets.

Team decision making makes sense when you consider that having input from a variety of perspectives will lead to greater creative solutions as well as covering all ‘bases’ of a particular challenge.

The hindrance of an individual making a decision is simply that it is one perspective – one source of research and one personality making a decision that could impact a market that has diverse needs and opinions.

The key success factors to enable teams to make great decisions are:

• Small teams of 5 people is the most efficient sized teams for fast decision making (having an odd number minimizes a ‘majority rules’ decision.)
• Diversity on the team – diverse ages for example could include in a team of five – one Gen Z, one Millenial, one Gen X, one Baby Boomer and one Traditionalist.
• Disagreement is welcomed and established as a necessary part of team decision making.
• Each individual on the team has high self leadership skills including ability to identify ones own biases, defensiveness and any negative behaviours that would hinder the teams agility to make fast decisions.
• Team leadership creates a safe and open environment where all ideas are welcomed and the end decisions are what’s best for the overall goals.

The best teams consist of highly talented and motivated individuals who are fully accountable to their teams by being open, honest and forthright while honouring the diverse opinions, perspectives and experiences of their team mates.

The rise of AI will influence team decision making by providing real time data to help teams make the most successful decision possible. It is the combination of technology with human insights that will leverage teams to make powerful and impactful decisions that affect clients and employees as move forward to the future.