Decision-making

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Strategies are mere words until they are expressed through choices: the choice to design a program this way, not that way; to engage this partner, not that one; to pursue this type of funding, not that type. Decisions are literally how we create change and impact in the world around us.

Decision-making is also the source of enormous amounts of spoken and unspoken conflict in justice organizations. JustOrg Design supports people in getting conscious and serious about building their collective decision-making capacity. To build trust in ourselves in each other that we can apply strategic thinking to the most important decisions in front of us as an organization.

Of course individuals and functional teams make lots of decisions in the course of every day; what JustOrg Design is intent on capturing is major choices that advance organizational strategy. Indications that a decision is associated with advancing strategy and thus appropriate for a Table to work on collectively:

• The decision will affect multiple functions/departments of the organization

• The decision will significantly change how we design and deliver key aspects of our work

• The decision will involve discontinuing a current practice or program

• The decision will involve adding a new practice or program

• The decision will involve adding or changing the nature of a key organizational partnership or funding relationship

• The decision will significantly affect our employee culture and/or quality of employment experience

How does it work in the JustOrg Design application?

1. Decisions are made by Tables, but the methodology of the decision-making can vary. The system allows you to label a decision as:

1. Consent

2. Consensus

3. Majority

4. Individual (a single person on the Table made the decision)

5. Individual with Advice Process (a single person on the Table made the decision after consulting people who would be impacted)

JoD INSIGHT: We are partial to the Consent decision-making process for significant strategic choices made by groups. The JoD System allows for a robust proposal, voting, feedback integration, and re-voting process using the 5-finger method.

JustOrg Design GROUP VOTING

2. The Table Convener captures decisions made by the Table in two ways:

1. Real-time Decisions are captured as they happen in the course of a Table Meeting. There is a dedicated place in the Table Agenda / Meeting Environment to capture these decisions as they occur.

2. Proposal Room decisions are planned and intended to be voted on and workshopped by the group as necessary. Articulating and voting on a Table decision through the Proposal Room involves:

   1. Drafting the proposed decision to be made

   2. Selecting a group voting method: consent, consensus, or majority

   3. Opening the voting to all Table Participants who will participate in the vote.

   4. If consent, consensus, or majority is not achieved, workshopping to get to a new proposal for a revote

   5. Once you've completed the voting round(s), logging the result as a Table decision and associating it with strategies, priorities, and/or values as appropriate

JoD INSIGHT: Because decision-making is quite literally the currency of strategy, visibility into strategic decision-making across the organization is paramount. Leadership teams have visibility into decisions made across Tables so that they can ensure that important decisions truly come to life. Rather than making all strategic decisions on the leadership team itself–though they make some–the leadership team is keenly interested in rallying resources and organization-wide commitment to implement the strategic choices Tables make as well.