The need for speed places a premium on efficient decision making. But effective strategic moves also require organizational buy-in, which is best achieved through time-consuming consensus building. Harvard Business School assistant professor of general management Michael Roberto reveals some mechanisms for achieving both in his working paper, “Strategic Decision-Making Processes: Beyond the Efficiency-Consensus Tradeoff.” Broad-based consensus on decisions to launch a new product line, for example, or to pursue a major contract, facilitates the resulting implementation of the strategy. But a trade-off emerges because along with more seats at the table comes more time required to build consensus, and a greater risk of the analysis paralysis that typifies large organizations. Indeed, scholars have long noted the difficulties a trade-off presents for companies and policymakers alike.Roberto describes a set of do's and don'ts to maximize chances of attaining both efficiency and consensus emerging from his 1999-2000 field study of 10 major decisions at a respected aerospace company. First, the do's. “[Good groups] embark on a gradual structuring process instead of putting all the options on the table and trying to make a decision,” says Roberto. “Through a series of intermediate agreements, you can manage conflict and debate effectively.&
