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.
Baule’s scholarly interests focus on online student engagement, educational technology-- particularly the impact of 1:1 implementations, social-emotional learning, and the history of education. Baule led several efforts to improve student emotional health and reduce discipline issues prior to moving into higher education. He also writes on aspects of early American history.
Baule has held memberships in the American Association of School Administrators, the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Consortium for School Networking, the International Association of School Librarians, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Staff Development Council, and many of their state affiliates. He has served as a consultant in the areas of educational technology, facilities design, library program development, team building, and communications.
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