How Well are Decisions Communicated to Your Team?

Everyone knows team members need to be informed of decisions so that they can proceed with their work.

Yet, it’s astounding how often decisions are made and then not shared with the team, as if they’re top secret. 

Team members must go on a search, much like a scavenger hunt, to find out first, if a decision has yet been made, and if it has, what the decision is.  

It isn’t enough though, to simply and matter-of-factly communicate the decision.  It is essential to also communicate the reasoning or rationale behind the decision. 

Think of it as a two part communication. The first part is: “this is the decision that has been made.  And the second part is: “and this is why this particular decision was made.”  This two-part communication is always advantageous, and an absolute imperative for broad reaching, complex or controversial decisions.  

Why is this so important?  Because it is the understanding of “why” a particular decision was made, or “why” one option was chosen over another option that facilitates team member buy-in. 

Without understanding the rationale behind the decision, team members’ buy-in is low or non-existent. They then expend tremendous energy and time discussing it, complaining about it, trying to understand it and often resisting it.  None of these actions are conducive to advancing the team’s work. 

In our work, as in life, we don’t always like the decisions that have been made or the option chosen. But understanding the rationale behind the decision allows us to accept it, embrace it and move forward in implementing the decision.  

Decision making is a crucial component for building high-performance teams. What steps can you take to improve communication of decisions with your team?