The decision-making process can be daunting, but higher-ed leaders can make it manageable with a few key steps

How to get the most out of your decision-making process


The decision-making process can be daunting, but higher-ed leaders can make it manageable with a few key steps

Billy Graham once said, if you don’t make a decision, time will make it for you and time will always side against you. The timing of decisions is a constant struggle for most educational leaders. Analysis paralysis often plays a part. Particularly in our current cultural environment in most educational institutions, there is a need to try to evaluate any particular decision from a range of perspectives.

Additionally, the general bureaucratic nature of higher education tends to slow down effective decision making. A recent quote from a Midwest college president about shared governance explained it as: “No one is really in charge.” This tends to create situations where decisions are often made after they ideally should have been, or the question is not raised in the correct forum.

As an advisor, students will often ask for information or to clarify some rule that might require a waiver or a supervisor’s approval. If you need to ask someone further up the hierarchy for clarification or for their decision, make sure you let that person know the timeframe that you promised a response to the student. For instance: “I told Student A I would get back to her in a week, so she has time to potentially register for X as an alternative to Y.” This puts you a bit in the driver’s seat, particularly if you provide the supervisor with an outline of the options and your recommendation.

If you do not hear back, you can at least plausibly articulate that because you didn’t get a response by the student’s deadline, you assumed that was effectively a “go ahead” to move forward. Nearly everyone has heard that forgiveness is easier to obtain than permission. Whoever originated that saying was likely a university faculty member.

If you are making a decision others are going to then have to implement, timing is also essential. Often, groups will take a year or more to make an important decision and then expect it to be quickly implemented. Remember, as a leader, make sure that you leave at least two-thirds of the time available to your subordinates. The military calls this the One-third Two-thirds Rule. Never take more than one third of the time to prepare. Leave the rest of the planning time for your team.

When making decisions, it is important to remember a timely decision made with 70% of the facts is often better than a late decision with 99% of the facts. Too often, decision makers want to have all the information before making a decision. That is frequently an unreasonable expectation. Additionally, when no decision is in a meaningful time, it may make the stakeholders lose faith in the organization’s leaders and the decision-making process. Losing faith can cause more inertia for future decisions and lead to a situation where the organization itself starts to suffer from analysis paralysis. A governance process must be effective for stakeholders to have faith in it.

The above paragraph should not lead one to think a decision can be made without investigating the facts. Seek the opinions of other leaders and stakeholders with various perspectives. Complete the necessary due diligence but do so in a timely manner.

If you are in a decision-making role, make sure you have a plan in place if you are unable to make a decision. With the advent of cell phones and email, most supervisors are available even when they are out of the office. However, to prepare the next generation of leaders, when you are away from the office, identify someone to make interim decisions. This provides the interim the opportunity to try out decision making; if there is a major decision, they will likely reach out to you for guidance. There is little downside. Empowering subordinates and providing a clear decision-making chain during an absence has little disadvantage.

Lastly, remember to be positive. Organizations with a positive culture can weather a variety of storms much easier than those already looking for a reason to fail or be negative. Leaders make poor decisions from time to time. The key is to be able to recover from them and move forward wiser for the experience.

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Steven M. Baule, Ed.D., Ph.D.
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