How we make decisions
How do we make decisions in a decentralized organized with no managers?
By decentralizing the decision-making itself. The guiding principle is that decisions should be made by the person who feel most engaged in the decision, but with respect for the points of view of people affected by the decision.
We call this the Advice Process (“Rådføringsprocessen” in Danish).
Note – for allocation of consultants to client engagements we have a specific protocol for that – the bun protocol. Similar for recruitment decisions.
How does the Advice Process work?
The proces is quite simple:
- Anyone can make any decision
- When making decisions one must seek the advice of people who are affected by the decision
The advice can be sought bilaterally or in groups, and usually the decision proposal is adjusted based on the advice of the peers. Sometimes the advice sessions are repeated multiple times before a decision is made. But the decision is always in the hands of the person driving the decision-making.
This also means that the advice of the peers does not have to be heeded if the person driving the decision-making is not convinced and believe strongly in his or her own proposal.
Why don’t we have a centalized decision-making process?
It is important for us that people are free to use their autonomy and not feel hindered by a cumbersome decision-making structure. But it is also important that people do not feel that decisions affecting them are made without asking them.
We believe in building an organisation where the autonomy of the individual is balanced by the needs of the community, and we believe that such an organisation is stronger and a better place to work than one where this balance is upset.
Which decisions are made with the Advice Process?
Basically all of them!
Sometimes the decision is so small and reversible that the decision driver does not feel the need for peer advice. Or perhaps the decision is quite personal and the advice is better sought from outsiders, eg. family and friends.
At other times the decision affects everyone in Bestbrains and the advice seeking will be very close to consensus seeking. In such a situation the driver of the decision will normally seek the advice of all. This would look and feel very much like a consensus seeking decision process, but is basically just the Advice Process where many are affected.
What if somebody disagrees strongly with a decision?
Sometimes our autonomy focused decision-making process results in people feeling strongly about a decision made by somebody else – and sometimes negatively so (it really happens more seldom than one would think). When this happens our conflict process come into play.