The truly important features of the decisions Vail and Sloan made are neither their novelty nor their controversial nature. They are:

1. The clear realization that the problem was generic and could only be solved through a decision which established a rule, a principle;

1. The definition of the specifications which the answer to the problem had to satisfy, that is, of the “boundary conditions”;

1. The thinking through what is “right,” that is, the solution which will fully satisfy the specifications before attention is given to the compromises, adaptations, and concessions needed to make the decision acceptable;

1. The building into the decision of the action to carry it out;

1. The “feedback” which tests the validity and effectiveness of the decision against the actual course of events.

These are the elements of the effective decision process.

Tim Brown and Roger Martin provide a really nice description of how you might do this in their article “Design for Action.” In particular, the idea of throwing out multiple possible strategies and consciously debating them rather than incrementally working from strategies that are already in place is excellent.

In a complex situation, when you want to empower the entire organization to be able to act without direction from the top, having a shared view of what the purpose is and how each participant fits into it is absolutely critical. It is only with a basis of a shared understanding of what we’re all trying to achieve here that distributed action is possible.

There is another, equally critical, factor for success in companies: teams that act as communities, integrating interests and putting aside differences to be individually and collectively obsessed with what’s good for the company.

The truly important features of the decisions Vail and Sloan made are neither their novelty nor their controversial nature. They are:

1. The clear realization that the problem was generic and could only be solved through a decision which established a rule, a principle;

1. The definition of the specifications which the answer to the problem had to satisfy, that is, of the “boundary conditions”;

1. The thinking through what is “right,” that is, the solution which will fully satisfy the specifications before attention is given to the compromises, adaptations, and concessions needed to make the decision acceptable;

1. The building into the decision of the action to carry it out;

1. The “feedback” which tests the validity and effectiveness of the decision against the actual course of events.

These are the elements of the effective decision process.