Weighing > Voting

I have attended several business meetings. Organizations make decisions by consensus. The process of arriving is something like this. Someone proposes an action plan. Most often, this is a senior person in this group. Somebody nods, and then, over a few minutes, everyone else follows suit. The majority crushes any rare voice of differing views. It works wonderfully in the short term, for trivial decisions. However, not everyone's inputs are equally important while making critical decisions. It is essential to factor in the following elements in our decision-making process:

1. Experience of the person in the concerned subject.

2. The past accuracy of the recommendations made by the concerned person.

3. The accountability of the person making the recommendation on the outcome of a decision.

Based on the above factors, we should assign weights to every person involved in making a decision. The ultimate decision should be a weighted average of all the above three factors.

Ray Dalio follows this approach in his company, Bridgewater Associates. The company can foresee many risks and mitigate them with this approach. Click this link and watch a video on Ray Dalio's approach to decision-making. In the long run, our organizations should make decisions using this Weighing Machine Concept instead of the Voting Machine Approach we follow today.

Metrics:

1. Objectively assess your people.

2. Assign a weight to them based on the three criteria I mentioned above. I know it is a simplistic model. But it is a good starting point.

3. Follow this process while making decisions.

4. Assess the quality and accuracy of your decisions after adopting this system. Make necessary changes in the model.

• Subodh