“Inclusivity” is one of the bywords of the day. Applied to decision making, it means involving as many people as possible in the process — keeping employees informed, soliciting their input, making sure everyone has a fair shot at expressing an opinion. The goal is to increase the likelihood of a decision’s acceptance, and in many cases, this approach is a sound one.

And yet in certain cases, it’s simply impossible to involve anyone beyond a small group. The need for confidentiality and speed are constraints, as is the sheer difficulty of polling an organization of thousands of employees regarding decisions that will affect the entire company. Managers or executives must sometimes “download” a decision to their people after the fact — and that is where many a decision crashes on rocky shoals. Consider these scenarios:

• An executive team was engaged in merger talks with another company. By mutual agreement, they could not talk about the possible merger, even to their own employees. After the formal agreements were signed, key employees left the organization, the survivors resisted changes in the organizational structure and the merger failed to reap the financial gains anticipated by the executives.
• Union leaders and company management were locked in contentious negotiations about compensation, work rules and benefits packages. By agreed-upon rules, the offers and counteroffers were not openly discussed with union employees. After... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
  

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