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Decision Making Dissected

First, there's the bright idea. This comes out of discussion or out of somebody's head when they're thinking, driving, trying to go to sleep. We need to encourage the formation of bright ideas because we need them. Have a place for unstructured discussion and brainstorming. Bright ideas are very vulnerable when first born, so don't be tough on them. The time to challenge, criticize, amend, argue against, point out unfeasibility, all these things come later. If you jump all over the little baby ideas when they're newly hatched your chickens will stop laying them.

Next comes discussion, maturation, clarification. You've got a cool idea, but will it work? How would we make it work? This is discussion amongst friends, outside of the biz meeting, before the idea is proposed. Get it thought out well and be able to state it clearly before taking it into the meeting to be proposed.

Next, our little idea, somewhat refined, is proposed in the meeting, discussed, amended and perhaps passed by the group. We're halfway there.

Implementation is next. Who's going to do it? How? With what money, equipment, support? By when? Maybe this is a committee matter. The committee is instructed by the group to do such and such, by this time, with these provisos, and to report back on such date. Or somebody volunteers to do it. Or a special committee is called for, if it doesn't fit into a standing committee.

Accountability is next. The committee or individual has agreed to do it, by this date. The larger group needs to hear that the job has been completed, or, if not, why not and when it will be done or what needs to happen to get it done. This is the easiest part to let slip. If you slack on this we're all flakes in the eyes of the world, and in actual fact, and we can't do diddly. We're screwed.

The last part will, in some cases, be review and drawing conclusions or lessons. The project didn't really accomplish what we wanted it to, and we think that's because of this and this. We'll do this differently next time. Or, this thing worked really well, because of this, so let's remember to try to repeat these good procedures. This is how we learn and advance.

It's good to have a record of the action and the review and conclusions written down so we don't forget, and for the sake of those brave comrades that come after us, so that they can learn from our successes and mistakes. It's good to share this stuff with the rest of the union in other locals, so we can learn and advance together.

OK, that's what the meeting is for. Here's how to do it. Yahoo! Now we're having some fun!

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