Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to determine who needs to be involved in
Speaker 1: a decision, then trust that person or those people to
Speaker 1: make the decision, and don't slow things down by involving
Speaker 1: others who don't have the time, the interest, or the insights.
Speaker 1: As I have studied how people spend their time at work,
Speaker 1: I am continually amazed at how much time is consumed
Speaker 1: by meetings. People can literally be in meetings all day long,
Speaker 1: back to back. That is one thing. If you are
Speaker 1: leading the whole organization and every meeting requires a decision
Speaker 1: from you, I am guessing that is not what is
Speaker 1: going on with a lot of meetings. Some are just
Speaker 1: misplaced methods of accountability. You have a meeting to make
Speaker 1: sure people are still working on your project amid all
Speaker 1: the other meetings. But others are about reaching decisions, which
Speaker 1: is the point of a meeting. But these are meandering
Speaker 1: and ineffective because way more in people are involved than
Speaker 1: need to be. And I get it. People like inclusive cultures.
Speaker 1: We don't want to have cliques like in the middle
Speaker 1: school cafeteria. Everyone is welcome at the table. There is
Speaker 1: also truth to the fact that diverse perspectives can sometimes
Speaker 1: lead people to make better decisions, because a diverse group
Speaker 1: of people probably won't all share the same blind spots.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean everyone needs to be involved in
Speaker 1: every decision. It is often wise to streamline decisions and
Speaker 1: only involve the people who really know and care about it.
Speaker 1: You can see how this might be true in your
Speaker 1: personal life. If your family plans to get a new
Speaker 1: TV but you don't watch a lot of TV, you
Speaker 1: may want to weigh in on price and size, but
Speaker 1: you probably don't need to be involved after that. If
Speaker 1: you and your spouse agree that you want the kids
Speaker 1: to do music lessons, but your spouse is a serious
Speaker 1: musician and you are not, you might agree that your
Speaker 1: spouse should select teachers or youth ensembles or camps and
Speaker 1: the like, and you can just execute on their more
Speaker 1: informed decisions. Likewise, at work, maybe you are arranging the
Speaker 1: food for a work event. Your boss might want to
Speaker 1: participate in the catering decision, but she might not so ask.
Speaker 1: It is quite possible that she may simply want something
Speaker 1: decent within budget. No need to keep meeting about it.
Speaker 1: Now you have freed up time for both of you
Speaker 1: by limiting how many people are involved in the decision.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you do need a broad range of voices to participate,
Speaker 1: but it is not practical for everyone who cares about
Speaker 1: the decision to literally be at the table. That's when
Speaker 1: it pays to make sure diverse perspectives are represented without
Speaker 1: inviting every single person. Imagine a quartet with a soprano,
Speaker 1: an alto, a tenor, and a base, not a sixty
Speaker 1: person chorus. So if you are leading the effort to
Speaker 1: revise your company's annual review process, you'd want to make
Speaker 1: sure your advisory group includes people from various different departments
Speaker 1: and from different backgrounds. But you see, can't include everyone
Speaker 1: who cares about this. Too many people becomes unwieldy. If
Speaker 1: a six person team spends twenty hours on the project,
Speaker 1: that is one hundred twenty person hours. But if a
Speaker 1: twelve person team tackles the project, it will probably take longer,
Speaker 1: perhaps twenty five hours, since you have to listen to everyone,
Speaker 1: and all those extra people will respond to everyone else
Speaker 1: as well. If you do the math, that is three
Speaker 1: hundred person hours two point five times as much staff capacity.
Speaker 1: I am not sure that the ultimate decision is going
Speaker 1: to be two point five times better. So instead of
Speaker 1: involving more people, thoughtfully select as small a team as
Speaker 1: would be reasonable, and then trust the team you have assembled.
Speaker 1: If you are concerned about people feeling left out, publish
Speaker 1: the list of team members so that everyone else could
Speaker 1: share their ideas or concerns with them, But don't involve
Speaker 1: everyone directly. All the gears will grind to a halt
Speaker 1: when there is a decision to be made. Determine who
Speaker 1: has the knowledge and insight needed to make a good
Speaker 1: decision and who is interested in the decision, and leave
Speaker 1: everyone else out of it. That is how you get
Speaker 1: things done in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.