TPI “Decision Making” Template with an Example

[Dilek Ozdemirci]

Team Performance Indicator – Decision Making

One of the initial steps in structuring the decision-making process for a team is to identify what the team can decide on. We can call this “decision making authority”. Not all teams will have the authority to make all the decisions. In order to identify the level of their authority, the team can work with the senior managers in the organization, and then document it in a place that’s accessible by all team members.

As a starting point, consider including below items in such description document;

– List the kinds of decisions that the team can make into categories;
o Financial decisions (e.g. purchasing of tools, technology, training for the team) and the upper limit
o Scheduling decisions (e.g. # of change requests from the client, #of change requests initiated by the team) and the upper limit if there’re financial implications to the team’s budget
o Planning/Execution decisions (e.g. for product development teams; the platforms to be used, the lifecycle methods to be used)
– Who from the team needs to be included in the decision-making process
– Under what conditions, parties outside the team (e.g. external stakeholders, senior managers, escalation points) need to be consulted to finalize the decision making
– When and how to keep a record of the decision making process
– When to use a structured decision making process

The last point in this list is just as important as structuring a decision making process itself because, using this approach for all major and minor decisions that a team can make may not be as cost effective.

Once the decision making authority is described, a simple but effective method as below (usually known as weighted scoring method) can be used for various decisions that involves decisions that are based on selecting from alternatives such as; tools, technology, training providers, solutions to be provided to customers, action items that will address the root cause of a problem, process improvement actions etc.

Documenting important decisions helps build organizational memory, reduces biases and blaming, and helps increase buy-in and confidence in the decision when all relevant parties are involved in the process.

This can be used as a template and some examples are given to enhance understanding:

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