Fact Based Decision Making
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Click here to view and download the Discussion Guide to utilize with your Group and/or Team over the next 12 months. The Guide and questions will be updated each month to reflect the TOTM concept.
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“Just the facts ma’am..”
As inspired by Sgt. Joe Friday, Dragnet
As we prepare to enter the fourth quarter of 2022, we will be examining the 9th tenet of developing a leadership mindset, Fact-Based Decision Making. If you are under the age of forty you may have to Google the opening quote inspired by the infamous Sgt. Joe Friday, an iconic character who will forever be remembered for his love of “sticking to the facts.”
We can, of course, argue philosophically that facts can be interpreted to mean anything you would like – and, of course, there is some truth to that perspective. However, for purposes of this developing a leadership mindset tenet, we are going to stick with a few basic assumptions about facts – oh the irony!
According to dictionary.com, a fact (n.) can be defined as:
something that actually exists; reality; truth: Your fears have no basis in fact.
something known to exist or to have happened: Space travel is now a fact.
a truth known by actual experience or observation; something known to be true: Scientists gather facts about plant growth.
something said to be true or supposed to have happened: The facts given by the witness are highly questionable.
As leaders we make a myriad of decisions based on facts and feelings from moment to moment. Facts are not bad/negative, and feelings are not good/positive. Facts have a need to be assessed, evaluated, tested, and tried in order to be deemed true, just a fact.
The challenge leaders face in developing a leadership mindset around fact-based decision making is ensuring fact-based decisions are not an either/or transaction. When one takes a Sgt. Joe Friday “just the facts ma'am” approach, we discount, invalidate, and or disregard the feeling aspect of the decision-making equation.
Feeling only based decision making may be rooted in individual preferences, self-interest, self-preservation, fear, power, control, or uncertainty, the reasons are as many as there are individuals. Fact only based decision making can be skewed or misinterpreted, and or misrepresented by an individual. What is certain is individuals may use feelings to create ambiguity thus distorting facts. When facts are unclear or are miscast, clarity is obscured. Clarity is most certainly needed for wise decision-making.
Patrick Lencioni states in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, “ambiguity is the enemy of clarity.” Healthy teams set clear goals, objectives, action items and hold each other responsible for results and outcomes. Healthy leaders ensure teams are developed and prevent the fourth dysfunction of a team, the avoidance of accountability.
Leaders encourage individuals and teams to track, report, and analyze data in a manner that is healthy, helpful, and appropriate (H-H-A behavior as we fondly refer to it here at LSCA) and develop a team of people equipped to think critically, analyze information, and use facts to make decisions that ensure the long-term sustainability of an organization, therefore ensuring everyone feels good!
Several years ago, I encountered a highly emotionally charged, and costly feeling/fact-based decision-making situation. The General Manager of a production line was highly stressed about the number of orders their team members were receiving. They were adamant, extremely vocal, and frequently shared that the production team was ready to quit, completely over-worked and over-whelmed. The situation could absolutely not continue in its current trajectory.
I recall sitting down with the General Manager and asking questions about the production process, the daily and weekly quantity of orders, and the average units per hour a reasonable team member could be expected to produce. Without hesitation, the General Manager looked at me and asked, “Why is that information relevant? Everyone can see how stressed, overworked, and overwhelmed the team is! All you need to do is look around and see the looks on their faces and to hear their frustration in the break room to know we are going to have a mass exodus if this continues! I am telling you we need to hire at least three additional people!”
I agreed with the General Manager, sharing we most certainly do not wish to create anything less than an environment where each team member does not have the opportunity to enjoy a quality of work and a quality of life enabling them to be and become the most effective versions of themselves. We needed to act.
I proposed we survey the team, conduct a time study, collect data around the incoming order flow, measure the per hour demand on production, and tally the output results for a three-week period. I also asked the General Manager to research available information on industry norms regarding production expectations where safety and quality of work/quality of life with team members mattered.
Four weeks later we sat down together to review the results of the study. Here is what the facts indicated:
480 Total Minutes Available in an 8.0-hour Workday (allowing for a 1.0-hour lunch)
- 30 Two 15-minute Breaks
- 60 Minutes Work Area Prep Time
- 60 Minutes Administrative/Team/Company Training Time
= 330 Production Capacity Minutes per Day
13.5 Average Number of Orders Received per Day per Team Member
x 9 Average Number of Process Minutes Expected per Order
= 121.5 Average Actual Daily Team Member Production Output
208.5 Available Minutes per Day per Team Member (Equivalent to 3.475 non-productive hours per day)
The facts demonstrated we clearly had production capacity and indicated we should conduct further gap analysis to get to the heart of the matter (a feeling), and that was a fact! In his iconic business best seller, Good to Great, Jim Collins encourages leaders to “confront the brutal facts” on “the way to continually refining the path to greatness.”
Healthy individuals and healthy teams have the awareness and capacity to use fact-based decision making as a tool. An indicator of an emotionally healthy, high functioning team is their use of data and metrics as a key component to creating clarity in the fact-based decision making process. Individuals and teams alike can weigh all facets of a situation without regard to opinions or emotions. Don’t get me wrong, opinions and emotions clearly have value and matter, however without the facts, the chosen path may not be the wisest course of action.
When presented with fact-based information, team members with oppositional and or emotion-based decision-making tendencies will not be able to validate and ground their position and opinions. Fact-based decision making opens the door to greater levels of effective dialogue around problem solving and solution finding, as in the case of the General Manager.
I encourage you this season and onward to use facts not as weapons but as a finely tuned instrument to ensure the “way of wisdom” is aptly and ably pursued. We as leaders can perform the greatest service to our teams if we gather, assess, analyze, and share facts as a critical element to decision making. And those are the facts, ma'am!
-LS
Group Discussion
Guide
Click here to view and download the Discussion Guide to utilize with your Group and/or Team over the next 12 months. The Guide and questions will be updated each month.
Recommended Quarterly Reading
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
By Patrick Lencioni
2022
Managing From The Inside Out
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