Decision-making is an essential part of work. It shapes how we manage projects, how we track tasks, how we collaborate. The decision-making process is different when you work remotely.
I have a few tips that can help you take better decisions online and lead to better efficiency.
Sharing is caring
We work in multiple timezones and communicate through an asynchronous workflow. Some team members are just waking up when others are going to bed. Sharing what we do is essential for us so we can keep track of what is going on.
Sharing is a key part of our decision-making process. A team member can face an issue on their own, without immediate support. Although we hire people that can make their own decisions, there are some points where we need to have input from others. That’s when sharing is essential because it allows others to pick up where the others left off.
Sharing creates accountability in everybody’s work and helps the team stay transparent. Everybody is sharing the problem-solving process. Which brings me to...
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Making a decision is a process
Sharing is passive and it happens without question. Delegation and asking for help are active. If one of us is stuck with a problem, delegating or asking for help is the way to go. But, and this is something important, the person who is stuck should be the one who’s making the call, propelling the decision forward.
That’s why it’s so important to keep a culture where everybody feels comfortable asking for help when they need it… and to help when it’s expected.
This is basic in any team, but in remote teams, it’s even more critical. Although we do regular checkups, it’s very hard to know if someone is having a problem. There’s no office. You can’t look around and tell if someone is stuck!
Everyone should be responsible for moving things forward — if they have a problem, ask for help or delegate.
You can follow this diagram to know how to solve almost ALL your problems in life!
Decision-making is a process, and someone should drive it.
There’s no need to make the same decision twice
Saving time is essential, and where better than in not making the same decisions twice. It saves energy, bandwidth, and resources. If you don’t want to make the same decisions twice, you have to do it right for the first time and document the process.
Documentation is crucial. Every decision is different, but we strive to write everything down. If something comes up multiple times, it means it becomes a policy.
Documentation has three main benefits:
It saves time in the long run. Constantly polish the decision-making process documents, follow protocol, and you don’t need to spend too much time on it.
It increases transparency. When everything is documented, everything is transparent. When someone is on their own with an issue to solve, they can access the document archives… it can be super helpful!
It helps with automation. Some decisions can be automated; the documentation provided on previous issues are useful to create more robust automation. For example, we document all our sales calls and customer questions. Those documents help us to create automated customer service bots, which saves us the time & resources on hiring a dedicated customer service manager.
Bottom line
All in all, I think everyone should follow the same process when it comes to decision making:
Three simple steps to make decisions online
When you work remotely, everybody follows different routines and approaches decision-making differently.
But, if you have these policies in place, you can help your team make better and faster decisions. Although these are important for remote working teams, these policies are also helpful for everyone!
Contact us today or check out more information on how we do remote work.
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