Big or small, public servants make vital decisions every day. ​​Every policy, every service, every priority, every presentation and every strategy involves making decisions that have a powerful impact on people's lives. But how can you do your job well when you never feel 100% certain that you’ve made the right decision? This question is on each public servant’s mind as they grow their influence in government.

That’s why we recently hosted an event on Becoming a better decision-maker in government. It covered:

  • How to approach making decisions when you know they have a profound impact on societies worldwide
  • The skills you need to become a more effective decision-maker.

We’ve condensed the conversation into this short article, so you can bookmark it for when you’re preparing to make your next big decision.

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Tip 1: Imagine you’re advising a friend

Imagine that your best friend or most trusted colleague was in the same situation you are in and asked for advice. How would you advise them?

We tend to give better advice to other people than we do to ourselves.

When you’re giving advice to someone else, you tend to give it based on what you know about the person, the goals, the situation and the opportunity. Emotions don’t impact the advice we give to others.

When you’re helping a friend, you’re more confident about what the right thing to do is. We tend to give better advice to other people than we do to ourselves. On top of that, we’re often kinder to other people than we are to ourselves. We spend a lot of time thinking about our flaws, and everything we’ve done wrong in the past.

Basically, try to look at a decision you’re making just as you would a decision being made by a colleague or friend. Separate yourself, and give yourself advice.

Tip 2: When there are competing interests, focus on the objective

The most important thing you can do is be very clear on the objective.

When you’re working within a team, there will be a lot of different opinions. Each person will want to prove that their approach is the right one. But if you’re very clear on the objective, you can ask yourself questions that help you understand their perspective. What is the thing that is most important for them? What motivates them in this project? By understanding their relationship to the objective, you’re able to start finding common ground.

Always put the objective first, and work from there to develop a common understanding and approach.

Tip 3: Good enough is generally good enough

It is not your job to reach a flawless and perfect decision. But you should establish a set of principles that will make sure your decision is guided by the right framework. You should ask yourself: Who will this decision impact? What is the likely result of this decision?

Remember that you are not in a position to know exactly how things will play out. You cannot predict the dynamic consequences of people and systems.

Remember that striving for unrealistically perfect decisions can result in delays or no decisions getting made.

For example, you don’t know what your children will say when you tell them that you’re going to leave in five minutes. Sometimes, they might be very happy to hear that you’re leaving soon. Sometimes, they might have a meltdown. That is not your problem at the point of making the decision. But you do need to have the tools to deal with the consequences.

In government, you also need to know who pays for it. Not just in terms of budgeting, but also in terms of who actually bears the brunt of the project and carries responsibility for the outcomes of the decision being made. Remember that striving for unrealistically perfect decisions can result in delays or no decisions getting made.

Importantly, good enough is generally good enough.

Tip 4: Record why you made your decision

It’s liberating to know that you can’t completely control the outcome. But what you can control is your decision-making process.

In five years, when someone asks why you made a particular decision, you want to be able to explain that it was the best decision possible with the information you had.

Once you’ve made your decision, make artefacts, save the data and, importantly, remember the reasoning that defined your choice.

Done reading? Make sure to share your own tips by leaving a comment below ⬇️

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