Zapproved Blog

The following post was authored by Monica Enand and was first printed at Zen Habits on March 17, 2009. Follow that link to see the dozens of commens from readers. Our thanks to Zen Habits for the opportunity to contribute a guest post!

We live in a hyper-connected world and we all struggle with managing information and our workload so that we can accomplish what we need to accomplish. A big component of that is working with others. Even if you are a lone wolf, sooner or later, your interdependence will compel you to collaborate. This post will offer some helpful advice on gaining control in this aspect of your life so you can work effectively and efficiently with others.

We work and collaborate with others because we need their ideas and expertise to achieve a greater goal. The foundation of teamwork are agreements that we make, explicitly and implicitly, about what we want to do together. Building these agreements frequently sucks up valuable time and energy. Think about how much of your day (and your inbox) is devoted to this single aspect of work life.

We sit through meetings or conference calls of which only 10 percent of the time is productive. More often than not, these agreements are made through email which is far from perfect. Noted tech blogger Robert Scoble suggested last October that the number of emails required to get something done is equal to the number of people involved squared, i.e. eight people results in 64 emails. Sounds about right to me.

I’ve found in my career that getting decisions made is critical to being successful. Running an effective meeting is one skill, but most decisions get made on email. It’s a fact of life. The problem is that email lacks transparency and accountability. Additionally, maintaining any sort of record is hard to do because it comes in the form of a long email string stuck inside of an inbox folder which makes it tough to track and reference.

Even worse is that the lack of immediacy of email lets personalities and politics sneak into the process which is like sand in an engine and adds unnecessary friction. In my jobs, I’d find myself poring over every detail in an email proposal and wasting time. Then I’d send it out and have to try and herd a group of people toward “yes.” The worst part came after some time had passed and then we’d have to do that whole process over again because no one recalled the prior agreement.

From my experience, I’ve developed some ideas that will help you get decisions made faster, with less internal friction, and that will stick. Here are my 7 Tips:

1. One Decision at a Time. Do not lump several decisions into one. Break them apart and isolate them so that the team can address them individually. This will narrow the focus of any objections raised so that the discussion is manageable and can be concluded quickly. 
2. Be Transparent. Hold discussions in the open, either in person or virtually. Successful organizations put decisions in the sunlight. Closed-door agreements can fuel speculation and inhibits the group’s ability to buy-in to the agreed upon direction. 
3. Give the Facts. Be proactive about gathering the required information in advance. Data-driven decisions go smoothly and avoid injecting emotion which will muddle the process. People need data, whether it’s research, budgets, timelines. Provide so they don’t have to come back and request it later. 
4. Minimize Participants. Include people on the decision that need to be there. If others have an interest, you can copy them but don’t invite them. Ask yourself if a person’s objection would stop the project. If not, then don’t include them. 
5. Subtract Words. Use the fewest words necessary to convey the proposal. Your team will absorb the scope, but extraneous details will dilute the message and might distract from your main objective. 
6. Be Clear What “Yes” Means. It sounds obvious, but when creating a proposal, create a proposal. Request in a crisp way and use actionable language. This is a common mistake. Add focus and formality as needed in the Subject line and in the message itself. Don’t say “let me know what you think” when you mean “do you approve this project.” 
7. Record the Decision. Seems simple but is hard to do, especially in email. There is a reason boards of directors keep minutes. People will take the decision seriously and will abide by it if they know it is saved in a place that is public. Think about a document or folder on an intranet or on the web where the agreement is recorded. Even if it is not referenced, the simple fact of know it exists will create peer pressure and accountability that is powerful. 

By taking these steps, it is remarkable the productivity gains that you will experience personally, but also organizationally. Creating a system for getting decisions made and then recording them reduces stress and creates a level of trust that propels teams to greatness.

Monica Enand has worked for more than 16 years in large corporations such as Intel and IBM as well as startups. She focuses on the issue as a speaker and has created an online decision management system called Zapproved (www.zapproved.com) to help today’s worker overcome this challenge.

As our user community expands, we are continuing to find unexpected pockets that are adopting Zapproved. One of those places would be non-profit organizations, but after we thought about it the idea made sense. Non-profits are constantly looking for ways to be more efficient with time and money. In particular, because they often work with volunteers who are not in a single place or on a common computer system, a web-based tool like Zapproved is a great way to leverage technology.

An early adopter of Zapproved is Fred Greco, the Senior Pastor for Christ Church PCA in Katy, Texas, a suburb of Houston. He discovered Zapproved while we were in beta and has been a continuous user since then. Fred is always looking for new tools to assist him and his members, so when he discovered Zapproved he put it to work in managing decisions of the church elders (the equivalent of a board of directors).

“We find it very helpful, especially with the 95% of approvals that are routine that we can do remotely,” he said. “Now I have a record of the decisions and can refer to them when I need to.”

“The experience in Zapproved has continued to improve,” Fred continued. He finds the recently introduced Outlook Add-in a big time-saver since he manages his email in Microsoft’s popular email client. In addition, the ability to include his church’s logo “helps people feel more comfortable when receiving emails from Zapproved,” he added.

Based on our conversations, using Zapproved for managing volunteer boards and committees is gaining ground. Having a simple tool that users of every technical ability can employ to create a reliable process for getting decisions made is valuable.

Fred concluded by saying: “I try a lot of online tools and Zapproved is one of the very few I’ve bought.” We are proud that is the case, and are happy to help support non-profit organizations in their important missions. We offer discounts to non-profit and education users so they can put Zapproved to good use.

Please send an email to info@zapproved.com if you are a non-profit and want to find out more about our discount plan.

We are re-posting here, with permission of GTDTimes, the third part of a series that Monica is authoring on more effective decision-making at work. 

Editor’s Note: This is the third installment on how to be a more effective leader during a group decision making process. You can find the first and second installments of this series at their respective links, here and here. The author of this series, Monica Enand, is the CEO and Founder of Zapproved, a web-based application that helps companies manage, track, archive and most critically actually make good decisions in a simple, easy to use format that GTDtimes believes offers one of the best solutions anywhere for the often frustrating process of reaching consensus when too many stakeholders nonetheless must all have a say. Check out Zapproved right here.

In Part 2 of this series on Getting Decisions Made, we focused on creating the proposal that will be sent to others. As in most things, proper preparation is crucial to success. Once you’ve thought through what to ask, honed your words and pulled together the right information, it’s time to share it with others.

You may remember this quote which appears in Chapter 2 of Getting Things Done:

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but never simpler.”

Albert Einstein             

Einstein’s concept for minimizing is the perfect mindset to have when getting ready to share a decision for consideration by others. Ensuring that the right group of people is involved, and not a single person more, will increase the odds of getting to consensus successfully and painlessly.

Since the realities of today’s corporate environments mean that 9 times out of 10 these proposals will be considered electronically, much of my advice will be directed toward the medium of email. However, the same principles apply if you plan to have a face-to-face meeting. Although meetings have their place, in today’s connected world they are being seen as less and less efficient uses of time.

To Include or Inform?

The first stage is to gather a list of all the stakeholders in the decision. This list will include your peers and colleagues that will share the work, your managers who will be responsible and others who simply need to know what’s going on.

Now comes the important part: Sort this list into the following categories:

1. Decision-makers – One whose explicit agreement is necessary for the decision to move forward. Ask yourself if a person’s objection would stop the project. If not, then don’t include them in this group.

2. Observers – A person who should be informed about the process but whose inclusion is not a requirement. This group can often include managers and executives that have delegated this responsibility to you and your team.

3. “Laters” – Those people that will be affected but result but do not need the information until it is concluded, such as direct reports, consultants or other teams in the organization. Do these people need to see how the proverbial sausage is made?

Now do your best to make that list smaller. Too often people err on the side of over-informing which slows decisions, waters them down and lowers the value of the process in the first place. If everyone is “included” on a decision, it doesn’t take long to realize that no one has any real authority either. Keeping a group tight and focused will not only get faster responses but also increase the commitment to the outcome.

When sending a proposal by email, put the Decision-makers in the “To” field and then copy the Observers in the “CC” line. For the last group, the “Laters,” send them the results of the final decision after it is concluded.

Once this is in email, the benefits of refining the group will be obvious. Noted tech blogger Robert Scoble wrote recently that the number of emails required to get an action done in a corporation is equal to the number of recipients squared. For example, a group of 8 will generate 64 emails. That isn’t scientific, but it’s not far off because everyone will want to contribute and react to comments by others. It quickly spins out of control and eats up much more time than it should. The resulting chain of emails will be nearly impossible to record for future reference.

In another study by Basex Research, they found that 30 percent of emails inside of companies is “corporate spam” which they define as CC’s or “Replies to All.” Just take a look at your own inbox and chances are you’ll find yourself nodding in agreement! Seek out alternative ways to use new collaborative technologies that can limit the chains of email and keep the conversation in one place.

Finally, it is important to be transparent. Never make use of the BCC when making a group decision on email because it undermines the process and organizational trust. Also, discourage side conversations. By sharing information openly, the agreement will be sufficiently vetted and there will be an accountability model in place.

The final installment of Getting Decisions Made will focus on issues of concluding an agreement and building accountability among the group.