I’ve been working with a number of teams lately who seem to struggle with decision-making. A couple of frequent complaints include:
- “Decision-making takes too long. We’re trying to make decisions by consensus but we just never get anywhere.”
- “It doesn’t matter what we say, the manager/leader always makes the decision.”
- “We make a decision but then we just revisit it at the next meeting.”
If these protests sound familiar, you are not alone. It is quite common for teams to have difficulty with decision-making.
Civil discourse. Vitriolic language. We’ve been hearing and reading a lot about the state of American politics and our ability to discuss and debate. I don’t want to risk a comparison between our work lives and the Arizona tragedy. Except in cases of violence, a comparison would be silly. That being said, the concept of how we communicate with each other transfers from politics to our work lives each and every day. Just how civil are we at work? What does our organizational culture support?
