The Right Compromise
“Half a loaf is better than no bread.”
One has to start out with what is right rather than what is acceptable (let alone who is right) precisely because one always has to compromise in the end. But if one does not know what is right to satisfy the specifications and boundary conditions, one cannot distinguish between the right compromise and the wrong compromise —and will end up by making the wrong compromise.
There are two different kinds of compromise. One kind is expressed in the old proverb, “Haifa loaf is better than no bread.” The other kind is expressed in the story of the Judgment of Solomon, which was clearly based on the realization that “half a baby is worse than no baby at all.” In the first instance, the boundary conditions are still being satisfied. The purpose of bread is to provide food, and half a loaf is still food. Haifa baby, however, does not satisfy the boundary conditions. For half a baby is not half of a living and growing child. It is a corpse in two pieces.
Building Action into the Decision
A decision is only a hope until carrying it out has become somebody’s work assignment and responsibility, with a deadline.
A decision is a commitment to action. Until the right thing happens, there has been no decision. And one thing can be taken for granted: the people who have to take the action are rarely the people who have made the decision. No decision has, in fact, been made until carrying it out has become somebody’s work assignment and responsibility—and with a deadline. Until then, it’s still only a hope.
A decision will not become effective unless needed actions have been built into it from the start. Converting a decision into action requires answering several questions:
• Who has to know of this decision?
• What action has to be taken?
• Who is to take it?
• What does the action have to be so that the people who have to do it, can do it?
The action must be appropriate to the capacities of the people who have to carry it out. This is especially important if people have to change their behavior, habits, or attitudes for the decision to become effective.
Organize Dissent
The effective decision-maker organizes dissent.
Decisions of the kind the executive has to make are not made well by acclamation. They are made well only if based on the clash of conflicting views, the dialogue between different points of view, the choice between different judgments. The first rule in decision making is that one does not make a decision unless there is disagreement. • Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., is reported to have said at a meeting of one of the GM top committees, “Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here.” Everyone around the table nodded assent. “Then,” continued Mr. Sloan, “I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.” There are three reasons why dissent is needed. It first safeguards the decision maker against becoming the prisoner of the organization. Everybody is a special pleader, trying—often in perfectly good faith—to obtain the decision he favors. Second, disagreement alone can provide alternatives to a decision. And a decision without an alternative is a desperate gambler’s throw, no matter how carefully thought through it might be. Above all, disagreement is needed to stimulate the imagination.
Elements of the Decision Process
Ignore a single element in the process and the decision will tumble down like a badly built wall in an earthquake.
Good decision makers know that decision making has its own process and its own clearly defined elements and steps. Every decision is risky: it is a commitment of present resources to an uncertain and unknown future. But if the process is faithfully observed and if the necessary steps are taken, the risk will be minimized and the decision will have a good chance of turning out successful. Good decision makers
• Know when a decision is necessary
• Know that the most important part of decision making is to make sure that the decision is about the right problem
• Know how to define the problem
• Don’t even think about what is acceptable until they have thought through what the right decision is
• Know that, in all likelihood, they will have to make compromises in the end
• Know that they haven’t made a decision until they build its implementation and effectiveness into it.