You might have experienced a situation where you needed to get a decision quickly but had to negotiate with many participants with various availabilities. I seem to be in this kind of situation constantly.

So I go bold.

It’s just a simple change to the process in which I might not be able to decide on my own but need to get more people to agree first.

Instead of getting everyone onto a table at the same time (which will be hard) or communicating back and forth until a common agreement is reached (which will take loads of time) I often opt for making a proposal with a deadline for feedback.

I propose a decision to all participants and allow them to give feedback until a close deadline. So they will have a short timeframe to get their word out. Of course you have to allow for anyone being able to actually react.

I call this a bold approach as you can easily step onto somebody’s foot. So be clear about explaining the urgency.

In most cases you will only get feedback that wants a fundamental change. In other words you will probably only get important feedback and no arguing about details.

No feedback is counted as a silent agreement. You will get your decision quickly.

Even if you get feedback you can be sure that the participants in questions are aware of the urgency of your request.

decisions

<< “Developers should get off their high heels and get their sh** done!”

Will paid content ever work for publishing sites? Part 2 >>