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Great decisions bring out the best in teams and galvanize them to achieve greatresults together. Great decisions also attract the interest, energy, and resourcesthat members of any team or group effort need to implement them.What’s

more, great decisions resolve tough issues with flexible solutions that adapt to chang-ing conditions.

Unfortunately, too few great decisions, or even good decisions, get made on manyteams. Instead, tough issues fester. Businesses fall short of their potential. Communi-ties struggle. Everyone suffers.

Why? Typical decision-making processes set people against each other. When groupsface tough issues, even people with the best of intentions can find themselves lockedin divisive and destructive debates. Instead of energizing people to work as a team,most decision-making practices only work to polarize them. This slows down thewheels of progress, betrays organizational values, and undermines results.

Fear Undermines Decision Making

Why do typical decision processes produce ineffective and lackluster results? Theanswer is fear.Hardly anyone is immune to the contagion of fear that can envelop

a tough issue. Even the best and the brightest of us succumb to it.Take, for example, aresearch and development (R&D) group at a Fortune 500 company.

“I’m under the gun here,”Tim, the manager, said.“I need to get great results from mygroup and I need them now.Our company has searched the planet to hire the best peo-ple.We employ the leading software programmers, psychologists, and designers, and wehave a lofty purpose—to make computers dramatically easier for people to use. I’ve got

B Y D O N M A R U S K A

Making Great Team

Decisions

E X E C U T I V E F O R U M

Adapted from How Great Decisions Get Made—10 Easy Steps for Reaching Agreement on Even the Toughest Issues, by Don Maruska,with Foreword by Margaret J. Wheatley, AMACOM, 2004; © 2004 Don Maruska. Adapted with permission of the publisher,AMACOM, American Management Association. All rights reserved. For bulk reprints of this article, please call 201-748-8771.

Summer 2004 39

an open checkbook to buy what we need and access toa world-class advisory board. But my group memberscan’t even agree on which couch to put in our lounge.”

Tim had the horses, but they weren’t pulling together.He needed his workers to collaborate to create an in-tegrated set of tools to incorporate into millions ofcomputers, but different members of histeam favored different approaches, and eachhad invested significant time and effort indeveloping projects based on personal soft-ware choices. Because they couldn’t decideissues together, they went off on their ownto concentrate on their separate projects.Not surprisingly, they weren’t able to buildon each other’s work.

Tim worried about what to do. He didn’twant to take an authoritarian stance andsquelch individual creativity. Yet the teamwasn’t working together. He needed a wayto encourage everyone’s input and get adurable decision that would motivate groupmembers to work together.

But fear gripped Tim’s group.Though theyhad an abundance of resources, each groupmember was afraid that there wouldn’t beenough time, money, and recognition (es-pecially recognition) to go around. Nobodycould think beyond protecting his or her ownagenda and way of doing things.

The fear that plagued Tim’s group plaguesall kinds of organizations and groups of people who aretrying to decide issues together. And once fear takeshold, all decision making (even on mundane issues suchas which couch to put in the lounge) becomes diffi-cult. Even in an environment of abundance, fear cancause people to see scarcity.

The underpinnings of fear and scarcity lie deep withinour culture. For example, economics is defined as thestudy of how people choose to employ scarce resources.Classic definitions of government describe the processof allocating limited resources—who gets which slice ofa small pie.

The Legacy of Fear

Unfortunately, the primary reason thatfear-driven group dynamics are so

pervasive is that at some level they get re-sults. Managers who win at office politicsby spreading fear feel vindicated, especiallywhen they advance in their organizations.So why should they change tactics thatwork for them? Employees of start-ups,afraid that they’ll run out of money or thata major competitor will crush them, workextremely long hours, and often their on-the-edge performance gets good results.

The fact is that, although fear can providenear-term benefits, those benefits usuallycome at the cost of long-term conse-quences. Fear-induced behavior marginal-izes and discourages employees who lose outin power struggles. Eventually these peoplestop offering their new ideas and voicingtheir concerns, because they fear they’ll justbe shot down.And the problem isn’t just in-side the organization. Fear can also causemissed opportunities to forge collaborationswith suppliers or competitors and build newmarkets.

As opportunities—and risks—become greater, the po-tential for fears to overtake an organization’s decision-making dynamics mounts.When difficult circumstancesarise or big financial interests are at stake, groups clamp

Don Maruska isauthor of “How GreatDecisions Get Made:10 Easy Steps for

Reaching Agreementon Even the ToughestIssues.” Founder andCEO of three Silicon

Valley companies,he is a Master Certi-fied Coach, keynotespeaker, and author

of the “Business Suc-cess” column distrib-

uted through theKnight-Ridder Busi-ness Wire to more

than 200 newspapersacross the country.

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Leader to Leader40

down, becoming less open to fresh insights or uncon-ventional thinking. Fears plague organizations by set-ting up a system of negative behaviors and responsesthat rarely vary. Negative thoughts (What you want isscarce) produce troubled feelings (There won’t be enoughto go around) which in turn lead to disruptive behavior(Forget the team, I’ve got to protect my share) and frayedrelationships as participants become suspicious of oneanother and cooperation declines.

Fear thwarts effective decision making and teamwork inany setting. Whether it’s vying for the corner office ortrying to push an agenda in aself-serving direction, teammembers who want to win or bein control at the expense of theircolleagues propel their organiza-tions into fear-filled dynamics.Their worries that there won’t beenough to go around drive themto get their own needs for rec-ognition and reward met first.Fear of not getting enough stim-ulates ego-driven control mech-anisms. This prompts win-losedynamics, a contest of wills.Whowill prevail and get the recogni-tion, resources, and rewards?Who will lose out? In time, lose-lose dynamics becomethe norm.People who have lost power plot how to regainit.Those in control fear that someone will overtake them.Decision making deteriorates rapidly. (See sidebar,“HowFear Provokes Decision-Making Problems,”on page 41.)

A mind-set of scarcity limits what people can accom-plish. Even more dramatically, it restricts their enjoy-ment of what they do and create. Instead of a positive,joyful environment, their world becomes a fear-filledplace.

Using Hope to Overcome Fear

If the fearmongers and consequences of the damagingcycle of fear and scarcity sound all too familiar, it’s

time to make a change. The antidote to fear is hope.Pursuing shared hopes rather than fearful expectationsfrees participants to identify and develop superiorsolutions.

Considering the greater good (for oneself and the largerorganization) is a radical concept in our individualisticculture.Yet it is exactly the willingness to let go of your

own piece of the pie that is thefirst step in creating a more sat-isfying pie for all. People feelencouraged to explore theirhopes when they suspend dis-belief and entertain the idea thatthere is potential for improve-ment. And when they perceivecommon ground, they becomemore willing to participate in acooperative process that stimu-lates win-win dynamics, whichin turn produce win-win results(that is, solutions that supportthe participants’ shared hopes).

Hopes are much more than positive thinking.They arethe deepest aspirations participants have for their future.Hopes draw on the aspirations and interests of everyoneinvolved in the decision-making process and definewhat’s most important to people about their organizationand the issue at hand.As a result, they energize and guideparticipants to thoughtful and successful results.

Hopes also serve as powerful magnets to attract cus-tomers, resources, and support. People respond enthu-siastically to opportunities that fulfill their hopes.

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Even amid abundance,

fear makes people

see scarcity.�

Summer 2004 41

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How FearProvokesDecision-Making Problems

The cycle of fear shuts down deci-sion making in ten different ways:

1. People get left out of the decision-making process. “They’ll be dis-ruptive” and “We don’t havetime to include them” typifythe mind-set. Excluding peo-ple, however, undermines thebreadth of involvement andsupport needed for truly crea-tive solutions and successfulimplementation.

2. Participants lose sight of what theyreally want. Expectations ob-scure participants’ true hopesand their potential to worktogether. Participants focus ontheir own slice of the pie andhow big it is relative to every-one else’s rather than figuringout how to make the pie big-ger for the benefit of all.

3. The real issues get ignored oroverlooked. The feverish questfor control clouds the pictureand distracts attention fromwhat’s really important. Par-ticipants hide their agendasfor fear of showing theirhand. Issues become moredifficult to resolve becausepeople don’t talk about whatis really in play.

4. Participants miss important op-tions. They jump on the firstidea or defend their own,which keeps them fromseeing other choices. Fearsshort-circuit the deeper inte-gration of information andcreative connections neededfor innovation.

5. Information gathering is biasedand inefficient. Advocates only get information to sup-port their own positions orrefute others’.There are noguiding principles for focusedand balanced inquiry. Somepeople study issues to excessbecause they don’t knowwhat they’re looking for orthey fear the consequences of making a choice.

6. Participants become personallyattached to preset positions orexpectations. They’re less ableto receive new informationand change their viewpoints.They ignore or reject infor-mation that could lead themto better results. In theirminds, the risk of showingtentativeness or losing faceoverrides the need to find the best path.

7. Someone or some group drives thedecision with a personal agenda.With self-protection as thefirst priority, participants losesight of the bigger picture.The quest for personal vic-tory overshadows the poten-tial of win-win solutions.

8. Some choices and areas for potential agreement and oppor-tunities are never explored.Majority or authoritarianrule often decides the path.Participants miss seeing thetotal solution and ways tofashion improved results.

9. Decisions don’t stick. Bothwinners and losers make poorlearners.Winners revel inself-congratulation. Defeatedor excluded people rally toreverse the decision. In bothcases, they lack the opennessnecessary to perceive changespromptly and respondproductively.

10. Dissension builds. As diffi-culties mount, fears increase.Dissatisfaction spills over intoother issues. Soon, even mun-dane issues become difficultto decide.The fear spiraltakes hold.

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For example,when I was vice president of marketing fora start-up called Trade*Plus, which later becameE*Trade,our goal was to give individual investors accessto securities markets that only big institutional investorsand brokers had. One customer, reflecting the wants ofmany, said,“I want technology to put me on the floorof the exchanges. I want to see the prices the brokerssee. I want to put my orders in when I want, and I’d liketo have all of the results organized and at my fingertips.”

The company responded, developing technologies tofulfill these investors’ hopes. Soon, our customers had afull suite of services with pricequotes directly off the ex-changes. They had the tools toplace orders themselves, at anytime of the day or night. Peopleflocked to the business. Theyweren’t all small players, either.Some brought multimillion-dollar portfolios from full-service brokers. Investors whodidn’t wish to work with bro-kers—because of costs, languageor communication difficulties,and many other reasons—rev-eled in their newfound freedomand power.

Our customers told us their hopes, and the companyresponded. Today E*Trade responds to the hopes ofmore than three million account holders. Hopes pro-vided a powerful way to focus resources and stimulategreat results.

Translating Hopes into Action

The process of translating hopes into action is theinstrument for realizing improvement in your de-

cision making. In my book How Great Decisions Get

Made I describe a ten-step process for making decisionsthat do the job and get carried out. These steps guideparticipants to uncover the real issue, identify all op-tions, gather the right information, and get everythingon the table without wasting a minute on divisive de-bates. The process concludes with written choices, avisual map to the best solutions, preparation for changesahead, and celebration of how the decision supportsthe hopes you share.

But it all starts with enlisting everyone and discoveringyour shared hopes, which are the first two steps in the

process. It doesn’t matter howmany people are seated aroundthe table or how many differentpersonal styles they bring withthem—even deeply dividedgroups find they have commonobjectives or aspirations. Whatdrives a wedge between peopleis not knowing the route to taketo pursue their objectives.

Remember Tim and his R&Dgroup? They found themselvesin just this kind of situation.They needed to create an inte-grated set of tools to incorpo-

rate into millions of computers, but the different teammembers favored different approaches. Each had a per-sonal preference and just wanted to push the othermembers to adopt it. Some even lacked the patience tolisten to anyone with a different style or perspective.

When Tim and I asked the group to express their hopesfor their work, we started to get somewhere. “I hopeour work will be part of a product that makes comput-ers much easier and friendlier for people to use,”offeredone researcher.“I hope we can build upon one another’swork to create an integrated solution,” suggested an-

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Even deeply divided

groups find they have

common objectives.�

Summer 2004 43

other. The remaining participants quickly followed inthe same spirit:“I hope to enjoy working with my team-mates.”“I hope we attract more outstanding people, re-sources, and support to get the job done.”“I hope webecome known as an outstanding group of people whocame together and made something special happen.”

As those seemingly contentious group members beganto explore their hopes and why those hopes were im-portant to them, the tone and character of their inter-actions changed.They discovered that, despite all theirbickering and dissension, they shared similar aspirations.In the course of this pivotalmeeting, the participants sortedthrough all the issues and op-tions and agreed upon the mostdesirable software for the teamas a whole.They also identifiedan acceptable alternative in casethey needed to make changesdown the road.

But that’s not all that happened.In addition to reaching two im-portant decisions, they discoveredthat they could work together.This realization began a processof rebuilding trust, confidence,and mutual commitment. As a result, they gained some-thing much more valuable than anything an open check-book could buy.They found the human software to bringgood people with a common purpose together to achievegreat results in their business.

When hopes are part of the decision-making process,you have a whole new way of thinking and acting.Hopes stimulate a variety of useful responses:

• Positive thoughts: You hear statements like “We cando this together” and “I don’t know what the solu-

tion is, but it’s likely that something will fulfill whatwe want.”

• Upbeat feelings: Energy, confidence, and esprit decorps rise.

• Affirmative behaviors: People become willing to lis-ten, have more patience, and are alert to new ideasand opportunities.

• Constructive relationships: Participants develop acooperative attitude coupled with concern aboutsolutions that will serve everyone involved.

Focusing on hopes helps teammembers realize that they sharecommon aspirations and canavoid needless frustration.With-out expressing their hopes,manyteam members waste time bick-ering with one another aboutsmall issues because they haven’treached agreement about theirdesired outcome. People fightfor control of the steering wheelbecause they don’t trust whereothers might take them. Clari-fying where people are headedin the big picture saves time infiguring out how to get there.

No matter what kind of group you’re involved with orthe types of people within it, the dynamics of hope canchange decision making for the better.To tap into yourteam’s hopes, follow these practices:

• Ask all participants to write down their hopes—theirdeepest aspirations—for the team. The hopes do nothave to be currently attainable. Everyone should use a bold marker and write one hope per sheet of paper and mark those that are most compellingwith an asterisk.

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The dynamics of hope

change decision making

for the better.�

Leader to Leader44

• Pair up people who know each other least well and havethem take turns asking each other,“Why is your hopeimportant to you?”The listener records what the partnersays. Asking people why something is importantto them often triggers deeper answers.The listenersimply records the other person’s answers withoutdiscussion and debate.

• Share the hopes with the full group, identifying commonthemes. Post the hopes on thewall and ask several people tohelp cluster similar hopes to-gether. Often, the hopes crys-tallize around several themes:relationships, results, resources,and rewards.

• Check whether each person sup-ports the hopes of the other teammembers. In my experience,even very conflicted teamscan agree upon a shared setof hopes. Since the hopes in-clude everyone’s perspectivesand don’t impose a single view, they invite support.

• Use your hopes to focus your discussions. Read the hopesat the start of each meeting, having each team mem-ber read a hope until the list is completed.This willcenter the group on its broader purpose.

• Let go of your need to set outcomes so that your sharedhopes can come alive. Trust that something better canhappen for your team than the result you may haveexpected.

• Use your list of shared hopes to evaluate opportunities andtrack the team’s progress. Your list of hopes offers a per-spective that goes beyond typical organizational goals.

To become an agent of hope for your team,pay attentionto your own cycles of fear and hope. Write down foryourself what your thoughts, feelings,behaviors, and rela-tionships with others are like in each cycle of fear or hope.

These are your cues to determinewhich frame of mind you’vechosen.If you find yourself in thefearful mode,do some self-exam-ination to determine whetheryou truly are in imminent dangeror can choose to be your hopefulself.Your choice will make a bigdifference for you and the peoplewith whom you work.

When you change a few thingsabout the way people discuss and

deal with issues, you can dramatically improve their de-gree of participation in any group effort and the resultsthey achieve.You don’t have to change who they are orwhat they think. Focusing on hopes simply invites par-ticipants to be their better selves and discover opportu-nities to work together that their fears and unproductivedynamics had previously hidden. The shared hopes ofeveryone on your team are waiting to come alive, if onlyyou ask the right questions and listen to the responses. �

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Pay attention to

your own cycles

of fear and hope.�