Making Team Decisions Faster and Easier

Ever been in a meeting that feels like a hamster wheel of indecision? The same points circling endlessly, everyone is tired but no conclusion in sight? Decision paralysis costs organizations dearly—not just in wasted meeting time, but in missed opportunities and team burnout. After studying teams for years, I've noticed that most decision stalls happen for predictable reasons: • Unclear decision-making process (Who actually decides? By when?) • Hidden disagreements that never surface • Fear of making the wrong choice • Insufficient information • No one feeling authorized to move forward    The solution isn't mysterious, but it requires intention. Here's what you can do: First, name the moment. Simply stating, "I notice we're having trouble making a decision here" can shift the energy. This small act of leadership acknowledges the struggle and creates space to address it. Second, clarify the decision type using these levels: • Who has final authority? (One person decides after input) • Is this a group decision requiring consensus? • Does it require unanimous agreement? • Is it actually a collection of smaller decisions we're bundling together?    Third, establish decision criteria before evaluating options. Ask: "What makes a good solution in this case?" This prevents the common trap of judging ideas against unstated or contradictory standards. Fourth, set a timeline. Complex decisions deserve adequate consideration, but every decision needs a deadline. One team I worked with was stuck for weeks on a resource allocation issue. We discovered half the team thought their leader wanted full consensus while she assumed they understood she'd make the final call after hearing everyone's input. This simple misunderstanding had cost them weeks of productivity. After implementing these steps, they established a clear practice: Every decision discussion began with explicitly stating what kind of decision it was, who would make it, and by when. Within a month, their decision-making improved dramatically. More importantly, team members reported feeling both more heard and less burdened by decision fatigue. Remember: The goal isn't making perfect decisions but making timely, informed ones that everyone understands how to implement. What's your go-to approach when team decisions get stuck? Share your decision-making wisdom. P.S. If you’re a leader, I recommend checking out my free challenge: The Resilient Leader: 28 Days to Thrive in Uncertainty  https://lnkd.in/gxBnKQ8n

Here's something any leader can do tomorrow to improve the quality and speed of execution of any team or organization. Step by step: Step 1️⃣ Send an email to everyone involved with a simple prompt: “I am curious about decisions you are making that would benefit from more strategic context. To keep it simple, fill in this prompt: I frequently find myself making decisions regarding ____________. If I knew that we _____________, I would likely opt to _____________. But if I knew that we __________, instead I would _______________. There are no wrong answers. We’ll do our best as a leadership team to provide that context. You can reply to me directly.” Step 2️⃣ Review the responses. You will notice that many of the responses are vague and not necessarily actionable. Some people are less experienced (they are talking about decisions that are "forever" perceived trade-offs like quality and speed). Some people are worried about being too specific for fear of getting someone in trouble. Don’t hold that against anyone. Thank everyone, regardless. But some people will give you incredible nuggets of information. For example: “I frequently find myself making decisions regarding whether to optimize our sales and onboarding process for high-ACV deals or for rapid local market saturation. If I knew that we were committed to tipping local markets as the primary growth lever, even at the cost of lower initial deal sizes, I would likely opt to streamline onboarding, strip down friction-heavy enterprise features, and prioritize network effects over immediate revenue maximization. This would mean optimizing for virality, ease of entry, and reducing barriers like long procurement cycles. But if I knew that we needed to maximize ACV per deal to justify our current cost structure and sales model, instead I would lean into high-touch sales, custom enterprise integrations, and more complex contract structures, even if it means slower initial adoption and higher churn risk.” Step 3️⃣ Provide that context. Yes, you can ask for general questions in all-hands or pop in an “any questions?” at the tail end of a meeting. But people often feel ill-prepared to come up with these questions on the spot. And you, as a leader, often feel ill-prepared to answer the hard ones on the spot. This approach captures the context needed, and the implications. Try it!

"Sorry, we need more time for research." Ever heard that only to find out the decision was already made while you waited? I still remember when a product leader confessed to me: "By the time our research team delivered insights on the checkout redesign, we'd already finished building it. We just needed to check a box." This isn't a research problem. It's a process problem. The traditional research cycle (plan for 2 weeks → recruit for 2 weeks → conduct for 1 week → analyze for 1 week) simply can't keep pace with today's product development cycles. After working with dozens of product teams facing this exact challenge, we developed the SPEED framework: S - Systematize your research calendar (weekly cadence, not project-based) P - Prioritize questions that block immediate decisions E - Extract insights from ALL customer touchpoints (not just formal studies) E - Enable cross-functional access to insights (break down the researcher bottleneck) D - Document decisions alongside supporting evidence One Director of Product at a fintech company was frustrated with research that consistently arrived too late. Their team implemented SPEED and reduced their decision cycle from 3 weeks to just 3 days. The key shift? Moving from "we need to launch a new study" to "let me check what we already know." Their team now has a centralized insights engine that instantly answers questions like: • "What's causing friction in our onboarding?" • "Why are enterprise customers underutilizing feature X?" • "What language do customers use to describe their problems?" I know this isn't a small change,  but for teams where the current approach simply isn't working, incremental improvements won't cut it. You need a system overhaul. I know that this isn’t a small change, but for many teams the current way of doing things isn’t working. If that’s the case, you may need to do a significant overhaul. If you want to talk through the best way to implement this framework for you, here’s my Calendly: https://bit.ly/43AL8Qe Happy to chat!

*Use leadership reviews to get principles, not (just) answers* How many times have you been in a brainstorm or jam session and heard someone say “Let’s take this idea to a leadership review! That way we’ll get the answer asap!” And that makes sense! Leadership reviews are great for unblocking teams quickly. Especially in the early days of a product when we’re still finding product-market fit, hearing directly from the single leader in charge of the team or company is invaluable. It helps us make quick decisions across an entire product area that will feel consistent to customers, and means we can build and pivot fast. But after we have product-market fit and generally know the path forward, relying on reviews for every decision can actually slow things down. Can’t you just feel how much the momentum slows down when you have to waste time scheduling and preparing for unnecessary meetings? Instead, we can accelerate our pace by using those reviews to build principles. That way the team can make fast decisions without even needing a meeting next time. That means asking questions in reviews like: 1. Is our principle here to optimize for Y users over Z users? Or B timeline instead of C timeline? 2. Should we default to always doing X unless it interferes with Y, like we’re doing here? 3. In the future, can we skip product review for this kind of problem? Or would you like us to come back for each decision? This kind of calibration has helped our teams stay fast even as a product matures. Early on, I might run daily or weekly standups with the CEO to make sure we’re aligned and unblocked. But as the team builds confidence in what’s working for customers, we can align with leadership on a few core principles and let the team run. The team can make quick autonomous decisions themselves, and we can get more done across the entire team. I’ve found this not only creates more capacity in teams, it also creates more *leaders* — because as our decision-making principles get clearer, we can empower more people to step up knowing that we’ll build consistently across the board. And of course, our customers get the benefit of quicker, faster improvements. (Full post at https://lnkd.in/gGt5GmTa. For regular updates on product, leadership, and scaling, subscribe to amivora.substack.com!)

When roles aren’t clear, progress stalls. A fast-growing startup I worked with had everything - talent, vision, and funding. Yet, execution dragged. Why? No one was clear on ownership. 🔹 50% of employees don’t fully understand their role (Gallup). 🔹 Unclear roles slow decisions by 25% (HBR). 🔹 Teams with defined accountability are 31% more productive (McKinsey). Work fell through the cracks. People hesitated. The leader assumed things were moving - until deadlines slipped. Some employees were overwhelmed, others were disengaged, and cross-functional collaboration felt chaotic. How We Fixed It ✅ Shift from tasks to outcomes → Instead of “handles reporting,” it became “ensures accurate, timely insights for decisions.” Employees started seeing their work as contributing to a larger goal, not just ticking off tasks. ✅ Clear accountability → Clearly define who’s responsible, for what, by when, for every key process. This eliminated bottlenecks and ensured that decisions weren’t delayed because "no one knew whose call it was." ✅ Make clarity a habit → Quarterly check-ins with two simple questions: → Do you know what success looks like in your role? → Where do you feel stuck? This helped leaders spot gaps before they became problems. Once roles were clear, execution sped up. Meetings became more efficient. Accountability improved. People weren’t just busy - they were moving in the right direction. Productivity increased. If your team is stuck, start here: What role ambiguity is slowing them down? #team #leadership #highperformance

Your team isn’t overwhelmed because of work. They’re overwhelmed because of confusion. I see this in almost every team I coach: → Everybody's busy and end up working in silos, → Everyone's "running with the ball" but not necessarily towards the same goals → Teams duplicate efforts because no one knows who's handling what → Every request feels urgent because context is missing. Here’s what intentional leaders do differently:👇🏻 1️⃣ Define Goals That Actually Guide Decisions: Not just what we want to achieve - but what we're willing to sacrifice to get there. Clear goals eliminate the guesswork about what matters most right now. 2️⃣ Create a Decision Framework: Who decides what? What needs consensus? What doesn't? Clarity reduces rework. It speeds things up. 3️⃣ Set Bright Focus: Every week, every month, every quarter - name 2–3 things that matter most. Not 10. Not 5. The discipline of saying "not now" is what creates real momentum. 4️⃣ Build Rhythms, Not Just Sprints: Chaos loves irregularity. When you anchor decisions, feedback, and strategy into consistent rituals - chaos has fewer places to hide. 5️⃣ Communicate the "Why" - Not Just the "What"  Without context, people overwork. With context, they align. And alignment is the antidote to chaos. You don’t need to control everything. ❌ You need to architect enough clarity that your team can navigate the unknown with confidence. ✅ Because work doesn't need to feel like chaos - even in a startup. What’s one structure you’ve introduced that made your team calmer and faster? Drop it below - let’s build better together. 👇 Follow Alexandra Erman for more! 🫱🏻🫲🏼