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🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

How are decisions made in your team? Are they always made during meetings and other synchronous conversations?  

💡 Concept

Scheduling meetings to make decisions can be a drain on individuals' time and energy. For one thing, waiting for everyone to be available to meet synchronously can really slow things down, especially when teams span multiple time zones. 

But depending solely on synchronous time to make decisions is not only inefficient, it can lead to inequity very quickly. This is due to proximity bias, or the tendency to favor those who are close in time or space. Such a lack of inclusion can decrease trust and lead to isolation among team members. 

One way to speed up decision-making and make it more inclusive is by incorporating asynchronous steps into your decision-making process. Blended decision-making processes, such as blended meetings, offer a balance of autonomy and relationship building. They also increase the number of individuals included in the decision-making process. 

Consider the following principles when making decisions. 

Process. Look at decision-making as a process instead of a single task. What elements of the process could be done async? What needs to be done in real time?

Priority. If a decision is low priority, consider making the decision async. If it’s high priority, consider making the decision in a blended format.

Proximity. Reduce distance bias by using remote-first practices to make decisions. If key team members are not all co-located, ensure that decision-making takes place virtually and is documented in accessible locations so all team members can easily see the results.

🎬 Take Action

Try out any or all of the following to incorporate async steps into your virtual team’s decision-making:  

• Record a proposed solution to a problem using a Loom video instead of presenting it live during a meeting.

• Send a request for input or send a poll in an async channel like Slack.

• Have team members vote on topics they want to prioritize using a virtual whiteboard like Mural.

• Create and use a rubric for making team decisions, using consistent criteria like “Impact,” “Resources Needed,” and “Alignment with Team Goals”

• Record your team’s decisions in the same channel or document so everyone can access them. 

✅ Check In

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn more about how to incorporate asynchronous steps into your decision making with Leadplaceless.

🎁 Learn with your team!

Refer our weekly microlessons to your team members to learn as a group! Just follow the instructions in the section below to get started.

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