- The Go Point (2006) by Michael Useem
The Go Point, Mgmt100 TA textbook
- Preface
- Firefighting scenario – with scant information available about weather, you have to decide where your crew should go
- Lehman scenario – you have to buy or sell, impacting bonus and firm profitability
- HP scenario – integrating Compaq: who goes and what stays?
- Himalayan climbing
- Civil War battlefield
- Tyco
- Lenovo
- Master the art and practice of being decisive
- Introduction
- One of the most unexplored and underdeveloped aspects of leadership is the art and science of decision making: art because decisionmaking depends upon hunches and intuition, science because it also needs to be disciplined and analytical
- The ability to make clear, crips, timely decisions can label us a go-to person. Plenty of us make terrible decisions though, and it impacts more than ourselves
- Every decision comes down to a go point – the decisive moment when information has been gathered, pros and cons weighed, and time has come to get off the fence.
- Some decisions, like trading/tennis, need to be made now; others are more “deliberative calls”
- On nov 15 2003 Paul Bremer decided to impose a deadline of June 30 2004 for sovereignty of Iraq to get parliament together
- How do we learn decisionmaking?
- study decision traps
- make decisions, and then AAR them – QUantico method
- witness/review what others have done
- he is convinced Learning By Witnessing is the best way
- on location, walking the decision terrain
- Decision Template: a set of personal concepts for making consequential decisions
- should be generic enough to apply to many situations yet specific enough to provide real guidance with real-life choices
- provide a set of prompts/reminders of what to keep in mind when facing consequential decisions
- reflects history and culture and predilections of its bearer.
- each template principle should be rooted in tangible experience
- each principle should be accompanied by decision tools – tactical steps that transform ideas into action
- Importance of bridging “knowing-doing gap” -> only know how to say smart things, but don’t do them. why?
- lack of decision principles and tools
- example of Useem bringing Enron to Wharton: Need to check that reality matches appearance before making decision based on appearance
- In the Heat of the Moment: Acute stress and decisionmaking
- Firefighting: Safety, Speed, and suppression
- Preparing for decisionmaking – Firefighting school did not teach people to make decisions.
- Acute stress
- Ambiguous authority and leadership decisions
- The South Canyon Fire Example
- Gladwell: If snap judgements can be educated and controlled, they can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.
- The Decision Template for Urgent Decisions (tools)
- Prepare for decisions under stress (acquire and digest decision experience and instruction)
- Build situational awareness (survey the environment, assign others to help)
- Sharpen Responsibility (clarify authority, identify implications of responsibility)
- Establish clear priorities (review priorities on eve of urgent decisions)
- Adhere to operating Principles (review operating procedures)
- revise operating principles (change rules that undermine decisionmaking)
- Make well-timed decisions (track developments and take action when the clock demands)
- overcome self-interest (reaffirm that responsibility to others supersedes self-interest)
- Getting into the Decision Game
- Decidophobia
- Hypengyophobia: abnormal and persistent fear of responsibility
- Roberto Canessa story – crash survival by eating flesh and trekking out
- “You can only look ahead” and a journey of a “hundred thousand steps” begins with a few
- Decision principles
- stay focused – dont get distracted
- set the bar high – expect best performance
- get back to basics – fundamental principles like “to the west, there’s life” that guided him
- No second-guessing decisions already made
- Stay cold and calculating to maximize your chance of success (make decisions before 7pm, study map before you leave)
- Staying out of the game
- dont go into a stretch job that stretches you too far, or has low chance of your success
- When all else fails
- The Decision Template for getting into the decision game (tools)
- Suppress your natural fears about making hard decisions (focus on ultimate goals for which decisions are intermediate steps)
- TO achieve daunting ends, focus on basic truths (use simple axioms to keep the ultimate goal clear)
- look to the future instead of rethinking the past (channel thought and vision on what lies ahead)
- combine dispassionate assessment with passionate commitment (embrace a goal but carefully analyze the means for achieving it)
- take on the difficult decisions of the game (recognize that decision anxiety and even shocks are inherent in holding responsibility)
- prepare oneself to get into a bigger game (incrementally engage in decisions now to anticipate greater responsibility in the future)
- break hard decisions into smaller steps (set proximate goals and tangible targets that add up to larger aims)
- stay away from games where decisions are improperly constrained (conduct due diligence to detect hidden limitations on the power to decide)
- trust your intuition if it is wel informed (look for an omen that will bring out your intuition)
- Using the Net
- Greater responsibility , larger net
- Acquiring a net: from trenches and up top – mark hurd in HP
- Consulting the inner circle – trusted advisors in cisco
- consulting an oracle – dalai lama
- Consulting the outer circle – the best advice does not always come from those closest to us. groupthink.
- Devolving and retaining decisions – zhang ruimin creating minimini corporations in Haier
- Retrieving decisions (that had been devolved) – reeling back orders.
- Taking decisions up – betting the company
- Decision template for using the Net
- Construct a net (turn to others and bring in still more upon whom you will depend when making decisions)
- Consult the inner circle (identify several informed and unbiased insiders for informal advice)
- Consult an oracle or expert (seek out wise associates who are exceptionally clear minded about what the future may hold)
- consult the outer circle (pursue advice and guidance from those with whom you have only weak ties)
- Devolve and retain decisions (make intent clear then let those close to the front line decide for you or with you)
- Retrieve decisions (pull back decisions from others when the consequences become more critical)
- Take decisons up (whent he impact is potentially gret, escalate the decision to a higher level)
- decide on which decisions to take (prepare a decision protocol that makes explicit which decisions are retained, delegated, retrieved, or taken up)
- Seeing Ahead
- Civil War
- Go point 1: taking the war north
- Go point 2: replacing the union commander
- Go point 3: taking cemetery hill and culp’s hill
- Go point 4: Defending Little Round Top
- Go point 5: Plan of Attack
- Decision Template for Seeing ahead
- Take the strategic initiative (ask if the current strategy will still prove winning in the days ahead, and if not, look for alternative means)
- ensure that key decisionmakers can see well ahead (train associates and subordinates to think clearly about what lies ahead and to base their own decisions upon that foresight)
- appreciate the capabilities of others for making decisions (the same command can be interpreted differently by two subordinates and thus customized to the individual)
- build a capacity in others to make discretionary decisions consistent with mission and situation (keep associates and subordinates informed about the objectives of the moment and the situaiton facing the enterprise)
- in making large decisions that depend upon seeing ahead consult those most familiar with the context and situation (ask associates and subordinates for their collective input on a decision before it is taken)
- Making Decisions
- Necklace Trading – importance of convincing everybody
- Race decision – importance of asking the right quesiton
- Mountain climbing decision -importance of detachment
- airline building/people express – importance of learning quickly from past decisions
- decision template for making decisions
- make clear what he decision entails before trying to make it (request clarification of the underlying assumptions and purpose of a decision)
- emphasize underlying values and ideals (before focusing upon a decison, review the enterprise’s ethics and principles)
- position yourself for optimal situational awarenesss and clear-mindedness (identify where you will be able to both appreciate the context of a decision and reason through good and timely choices)
- new decisions should be self-consciously informed by prior decisions (AAR)
- Transcending Personal Profit
- Decision template
- A lodestar can serve as a powerful reminder of the need to transcend personal gain for public purpose when making responsible decisions (look at a telling image/example/memory)
- asking yourself what the top person in your enterprise should do helps ensure that your decison serve multple needs of enterprise not just your own (before you get o the go point imagine you are gazing down from the apex to see the whole situation)
- the more responsible the position, the less self-serving must be its decisions (remind yourself of whom you are working for aside from yourself, and who is most impacted by your decisons)
- Decision template
- Unforced Errors
- Decision template for preventing unforced errors – Problem (tool)
- Decision authority is not bestowed (pursue responsibility)
- unfamiliar responsibilities (appraise the past)
- Inexperienced gut (educate your instincts)
- analysis paralysis (70% solution)
- mistakes happen (tolerate them – once)
- rush to judgement (preserve optionality)
- anxiety overload (look at the clock)
- sunk-cost syndrome (burn the boat)
- yes-man echoes (voice questions, not opinions)
- warring camps (let the battle rage)
- wily adversary (clone your oponent)
- constricted thinking (write poetry)
- repeated failure (restrategize and restaff)
- Decision template for preventing unforced errors – Problem (tool)
