Shall we begin to make it easier for good choices to take place?

“The “ordinary” event can be dealt with by routine – a procedure established in advance of a given eventuality. Energies are freed for dealing with the unexpected or creative acts.” HENRY A. KISSINGER.

Wow! So clear, simple, on point, so absolutely important, and yet many find it nearly impossible to execute. Some of it really has to do with language and the meanings we attach to words. How do we determine what the word, ordinary, means? In many instances ordinary takes on the meaning of unimportant, boringly routine, not requiring thinking or judgment.

So, let’s go down just one trail of creating an ordinary opportunity. Let’s make it routine for people to do something we want them to do in a way we want them to do it. That is, how do we make it ordinary for our people in our organization to make good choices, those choices to be aligned with our values and ethical standards? Regardless of how we place the term ordinary semantically, what matters in our enterprises is how we apply it operationally. How do we help our decision makers chose the right path for behavior? How do we start down the road of making a good choice routine? Make it ordinary?

To avoid the dangers of overstepping into pop psychology, I will endeavor to be careful with any amateur behavioral analysis or lightweight assertions. For now, let’s go down a practical path that we can execute immediately. To do so, let’s look to the other side of the making choices coin, the side that leads to poor choices. We might find much more insight there. Many have learned by now that always asking “how might this or that fail” is essential to building balanced decisions. Failure welcomes those that don’t find it out ahead of time.

How often has a post mortem on a failure revealed that the signs predicting the very failure in question were discernable? Discernable had the right questions been asked at the right time. Maybe if we start with some of the questions below, we can begin to identify where to focus our attention to invest in ways to eliminate some of the risks we create. By risks, the uncertainties we can create when our direction, working conditions, goals and targets, compensation and the like influence subordinates to make a poor choice.

·       Do we know what we expect from people and provide a behavioral standard that is observable and can be objectively evaluated?

·       Where in our enterprise are choices made? Who makes these choices? How and why?

·       What do our policies and processes say about how to make choices, good and poor? Do these policies and processes apply in bad times equally as they apply in good times?

·       What impact could our goals, targets, downsizings, acquisitions, divestments, hiring, outsourcing, partnering and the like have on the choices made across our enterprise? Do we know if we create conflicting directions?

·       Do we measure and reward what we expect from our team? Do we not measure but then reward what we don’t expect?

·       Do we ask people to choose between “the devil and the deep blue sea?” Does fear creep into how choices and decisions are made?

·       Do our values speak clearly about actions that are not in the best interest of our customers? Do we sell more to the customer than they need or charge them for more than is rendered?

These are a just few questions to consider. Trying times, such as we find ourselves today, test our constancy of purpose and what we’re not willing to compromise. If we as leaders do not have clear answers to these and other questions, what should we expect from our enterprise?