Jan

29

Decision Making

January 29, 2008 | 1 Comment

How does your group make decisions? How do you decide what to study, how large you will be, when you will split?

Groups have different personalities and different ways of making decisions. In some groups, the leader is the benevolent dictator, issuing decisions by fiat. If that’s the culture and it’s handled with sensitivity, that can work. But what if it isn’t handled with sensitivity? How do members get a voice?

Others groups are a democracy. Decisions are put to a vote and majority rules. That can work if the group is sensitive to the minority. If the same people are being out-voted repeatedly, they’ll go away – mad or hurt.

In some groups, one strong or difficult personality rules. People may not be happy, but no one wants to cross the one who speaks with an air of authority or the one who always expresses special needs. So, like the child who throws tantrums and wins, the group continually caves to the one.

What do you do when you can’t resolve issues? I’d love to hear how your groups work. Or don’t…

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1 Comment so far

  1. Authority » Decision Making on January 30, 2008 12:53 am

    [...] Why Didn’t You Warn Me? wrote an interesting post today on Decision MakingHere’s a quick excerptPeople may not be happy, but no one wants to cross the one who speaks with an air of authority or the one who always expresses special needs…. [...]

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