A Defense Method

Not seldom, after announcing a decision alternative, leaders and others are confronted with objections.  This is happening due to other opinions of how to reach a goal or how to solve a problem.  Mostly, the individual outlook ability is different from the decider and also the resilience factors vary among involved people.

But how can a leader stand strong after deciding and now dealing with objections?

EASY!

Everyone who does the homework and takes care of every optional alternative in detail is able to defend the decision!  Let me give you two easy examples to get the idea about it:

You announce which event of 4 alternatives the Board Members chose to offer to a team of 40 people.  The team suggestions included 2 in-door and 2 out-door events like:

• the opportunity to have a champagne brunch in a theatre with a play
• have a picknick in a National Park with overnight stay
• enjoy dinner & dancing with a live band in a hotel with overnight stay
• take a day-cruise on a ship with brunch on the sun deck and a program

In-door events where chosen by secure driven people while the out-door events where given by adventurous people.  Let´s say the team included 50 % of each group!

You are the leader and annouce that you chose the picknick event in the National Park!  Now people are against it and you will start arguing FOR this event:

The goal is to enjoy the weekend and bring the family!  This is a great alternative to reach this goal!  As a positive consequence meeting in a park is ideal, because it´s close for all of us and easy to reach without traffic troubles.  Yes, we need to bring some extra clothes but there´s space to store it in the hotel room.  We also have enough space for free parking and no traffic which is a big gain compared to the hotel dinner, brunch-theatre or ship-cruise.  As a uncertainty – the weather forecast for the picknick, we can think of booking a huge tent or going inside, just in case.  We can also combine it with a hiking trip when the sun is out and nobody gets sea-sick.  I see a good chance to keep everybodies mood up!  It´s worse with the ship when the weather is bad, the program doesn´t last all day and we have to stay indoor.  And who knows whether everyone likes the theatre play that day after brunch?  In case someone thinks it´s very risky with the planned barbecue for dinner in the park, the hotel offers to choose from the menu when we decide for it in the afternoon.  We can only RISK our good mood!  Oh, and as a trade-off to the ocean I thought of two high-lights:  there´s the chance to go on a balloon trip the same afternoon!  Maybe with even 2 balloons!  Some who don´t like to be close to heaven can choose to go wild-water rafting!

I can imagine that in this moment the defense situation is down!

Or think of something else:

The family “x” plans to buy a convertible for the first time!  There are 3 attractive alternatives available, all look good and seem to be fun:

• an oldtimer (a rare model)
• a regular family style car for 4 people
• a fast sports car with 2 seats only

You are a parent and annouce with your spouse the following to your 3 kids:

The goal for us is to own a convertible!  The tops of all 3 cars work electronically but there are differences:  the oldtimer which we all love might offer trouble when we need spare-parts, plus if the hydraulic of the electricial top suffers.  It´s going to be too expensive for us to repair it. The risk and consequence of higher repair costs compared to the other 2 cars will be too negative!  The trade-off we are going to miss is the specialty.  Also, we don´t think it´s going to be the sports car which goes very fast.  We don´t want to risk any speeding-tickets nor a bad accident because it might be quite attractive to speed with it.  Even for me!  The trade-off is the good insurance contract because not too many cars are out on the street and accidents so far are extremely low.  And the sports car takes less gas than the other two.  We decided for the regular style convertible, the family style!  We won´t be able to sit in it as a family but 2 of you can drive it any time.  There is no risk and no uncertainty!  And to make it more special for all of us because it´s the least attractive convertible, but most useful one, we will get the one with the special painting!

I bet the defense is down!  Try it –

Do your homework well and use the 5 strong arguments we all need to consider when it comes to decision making!

BE A DECISION MAKER.  BECOME OUTSTANDING.

rita jaskolla – Leadership Architect –