12 Tips for Driving Decisions (Part 2)

Lonnie Pacelli is an Accenture/Microsoft veteran with four decades of learnings under his belt. He frequently writes and speaks on leadership, project management, work/life balance, and disability inclusion. Reach him at [email protected] and see more at ProjectManagementAdvisor.com.

  Leadership  

In Part 1 of Driving Decisions, I talked about my experience as president of our homeowners association and the parallels between being president and being a PM when it comes to driving decisions. I introduced the first five factors to driving decisions:

1. Be clear on what “done” looks like.
2. Be specific on who owns driving the decision.
3. Decide who needs to be involved in the decision versus who needs to be consulted or informed.
4. Set the guiding principles.
5. Establish whether you need a best or least-worst alternative.

What follows are the remaining factors to round out the 12:

1. Have a clear why. Any decision should have an accompanying why that each decision-maker understands and can explain to other stakeholders. Starting it off with, “We are making this decision because…” not only helps ensure others understand the rationale, but also cross-checks the soundness of the decision.
2. Ensure full context early in the process. There may be factors you or another team member know of that could materially affect the decision. In my case as president, I can have a broader view of what's going on across the homeowners association that not all board members have. It's my job to ensure that anything I know that other board members may not know be clearly articulated to all members before making the decision. It's incredibly …

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