A630.4.4_SeabournBeau

Marcia Blenko argues that decision effectiveness correlates positively with employee engagement and organizational performance. How do you think that employee engagement relates to decision effectiveness?

Personally, I find that the more an employee is engaged in the decision making process or in the involvement of important issues, the more productivity you gain from them. There is nothing more rewarding then being allowed to partake in a decision making process, sometimes that you're not qualified to offer input on. If management is willing to let people engage in these processes, I feel like they will get the maximum amount of effort from them.

What are some impediments to good decision making?

The first thing that comes to mind is fear. If there are a lot of repercussions for decision making efforts that come up short, you're not going to get the risk-reward output from employees. It is important to take risks and o encourage staff to go out on a limb, Sometimes the best ideas can come from someone who isn't even involved in a process at all. It is a good idea to encourage idea sharing and open door policies at all levels. Second, I feel like having trust, or at least sharing your trust of employees is important. They need to know that no matter what they do, you'll support them, good and bad.



Blenko suggests that there are four elements of good decisions: quality, speed, yield, and effort. In your opinion, is there anything missing from this list?

Although all of those are great and she details them as most effective, I feel like we could add risk to that mix. What I mean is, how much are we thinking outside the box? Is this something that is going to really push us into something new? On some scale, we should be able to determine how risky the project or deal might be. That might persuade people one way or another on whether to peruse that option.


What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?


I feel like implementing this exercise I can try and apply my company's decision effectiveness at a corporate level. If I can find viable information or perhaps some shortcomings, I could share that with my management team and see if anything I come up with is viable to solving the issues.