Planning to Make DECISIONS

Hi. This is Wayne Rivers at The Family Business Institute. Thanks for tuning in. Please click on our social media icons and
let us have the benefit of your comments. We love to know what our listeners are thinking about what we're doing.

So, corollary to our blog last week, we want to talk this week about planning to make decisions. And this is important
because it sounds foolish, but so many times our clients make a decision, they decide not to decide. Now this might not
be a conscious decision, but they come to meetings and they talk, talk, talk, and then no conclusions are arrived at. And
people leave the meeting wonder, "Why were we meeting? Why were we talking?" Unclear about what needs to happen
following onto the meeting, et cetera.

So, this week, I want to give you five concrete action steps you can use to make sure that your meetings product decisions
and actionable activities. The first thing is... This is how you decide, five simple steps. The first is decide what steps you
need to talk. So maybe you can't arrive at a conclusion in one meeting because somebody needs to do research. You need
to research a piece of equipment, how we're going to finance thing, et cetera, et cetera. So, break down the decisions into
the steps that need to be taken. That's number one.

Number two, what decisions do you need to arrive at each step? Incremental decision making leads to big decision making.
Baby steps, right? So ,what steps do we need to take and then what decisions do we need to make to drive each step
forward so we can get to a bigger decision?

The third thing is when we will we decide? A deadline for making a decision. So, if some research needs to take place,
some discussions outside of the meeting room need to take place, okay, fine. Are we going to make a decision next week,
this month? When is it going to be? Have a deadline for making decisions, and that will eliminate so much confusion and
this disconnect that comes out of meetings.

The fourth thing is decide who will decide. Now this is tricky in a family business because the emotions get brought into
the meeting room, and some people agree and some people disagree. When they disagree, sometimes it becomes quite
emotional. So, here's how we're going to decide who will decide. Does someone in the group have the individual authority
to make the decision? If so, make it. If it's a $50 decision, for gosh sake, that doesn't need to embroil the entire leadership
and family of the business. Holy moly, that's foolish. Does one individual have the authority to make that decision? If
he/she does, fine. Let them make it.

If that's not the case then and it's a group decision, we have to think about it differently. Are we going to make the decision
based on a simple majority, are we going to require a super majority to make sure that we're moving in a fair and equitable
manner, and maybe sometimes we even need a unanimous decision. If it's a huge decision, like do we sell some or all of
the family business, maybe we need a unanimous decision before we go forward. But when we're thinking about who's
going to decide, is it an individual decision or is it a group decision, and if it's a group decision, is it simple majority, super
majority, or unanimous. That will help you break through the clutter of who's going to make the decision.

Finally, almost the most... I'd say probably the most important step. How are we going to decide? What are our decision
criteria? For example, we're going to go out and buy a new piece of equipment. Can we pay cash for the equipment?
Should we finance the equipment? What vendor are we going to use? When are we going to schedule demonstrations?
What is our ROI? How are we going to calculate the return on investment? What's the impact on the field or the plant?
What impact is there going to be on our existing processes? Will we have to adopt new maintenance procedures? So, all
those things become part of your criteria, and maybe you even weight them. Maybe vendor has a higher weight because
you have a relationship with one vendor or another.

So, individual criteria for how you're going to decide. What are the things that actually are going to cause us to make a go
or a no go decision? And this is important because so many times emotion gets into this decision making. We talked about
the elephant and the rider in a blog. The elephant... when you see a person riding an elephant, you think that rider is
control. But by gosh, if that elephant decides to go in a different direction, I don't care if it's the strongest man in the
world. There's no way that that rider is going to be able to get that elephant to stop rampaging in a different direction.
And that's our emotions. Our emotions can get ahead of us, and once the emotions blow up, so to speak, it becomes very
hard to guide decisions being made.

The idea by coming up with objective criteria is that we make these passionate decisions. We suck some of the emotion
out of the decision making process, and we make a rational business like decision instead of making decision by feel, which
is the way most things get done in family businesses.

Those are your five criteria. Making decisions is the life blood of an entrepreneurial company. Use the criteria and you'll
find yourself making better and faster decisions in your family business. This is Wayne Rivers. Thank you.