[[{"fid":"297437","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"tree","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":false,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"tree","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"tree","style":"height: 400px; width: 300px; float: right;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]
The start of a new year can be a time to engage in new learning and development, and so this newsletter includes a piece wrote for One Nucleus' January issue of People Pathways.
Before then though, I've included some reflections from my reading of the Harvard Business Review, on how to engage in "good fights" for making good decisions, and for influencing upwards.
January has a strange way of seeming to take a long time to pass, and then suddenly it was gone! So our first eManagement tips for 2022 is a combined January / February issue.
Winter can be a dreary time in the UK, so I've been going out for walks to catch any sunshine available, and sharing it through photographs with colleagues and clients as well as family members.
The photograph heading this newsletter featured in a client's 2-part group-coaching programme combining resilience and project management to support the major changes that they are going through.
The start of a new year can be a time to engage in new learning and development, and so this newsletter includes a piece I wrote for One Nucleus' January issue of People Pathways.
Before then though, I've included some reflections from my reading of the Harvard Business Review, on how to engage in "good fights" for making good decisions, and for influencing upwards.
Do get in touch if you would like to arrange one-to-one coaching, team coaching or one of our group coaching-style courses.
Elisabeth Goodman
ACC - International Coaching Federation
(P.S. If you, members of your family or friends, would like an opportunity to explore your artistic creativity in a supportive environment, our new in person Art for Wellbeing workshops are now underway in South Cambs, UK.)
[[{"fid":"297438","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"making good decisions","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":false,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"making good decisions","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"making good decisions","style":"height: 375px; width: 500px;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]]
We include this six-step decision making model in our management training as one of the tools that teams might use for more effective decision making.
The value of the model is more in the quality of the discussions that it provokes amongst team members, than in any so-called objectively-based process. And it's quality decision making that Linda A. Hill et al advocate in their November-December 2021 article in Harvard Business Review, using Pfizer's Global Clinical Suplply team's success with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as a case study. (Drive innovation with better decision-making, pp70-79.)
What particularly caught my attention was their section on "good fights" towards the end of the article.
They remind us that the best decisions will come where there is a climate of psychological safety. Where there is animated discussion in the moment about ideas and opposing views. Where people feel safe to speak up even if, and especially if, they are in the minority.
Managers and leaders, Hill et al remind us, can do this by:
1. Asking questions that demonstrate that they:
Don't have all the answers
Are interested in what other people have learned and how from the work that they have done and in what they plan to explore next
Are there to learn and support rather than to dictate what should be done
2. Encouraging the use of data, ideally in visualised representations, to create a shared understanding from which to make decisions.
3. Articulating and reminding people what their shared purpose is. What is "the good fight" about? Why are we here? What are we trying to achieve? That can help to re-focus people on what's important if the conversation has gone astray.
There is more useful material in this article such as:
Getting as wide a perspective from the people more closely involved as well as external perspectives
Having clear designations of responsibility for the decision
Ensuring that meetings are paced to match the availability of data and the decision points
How do our decision model and these observations match with your decision making processes?
To read the rest of the newsletter see https://mailchi.mp/1894903dfb5b/riverrhee_emanagementtips_jan_feb-2022