WHAT? There is a process?
Leaders stand alone with authority behind them.
“Why, I just think about it a minute, use common sense, make up my mind …and anybody else’s standing around. Isn’t that what leadership is all about?”
Good luck with that!
Hmm, so now what really happens? (and you can ask that five times) [Tibbs, p.286]
Our text begins with a title of Decision-making but we are plunged immediately into a myriad of group problem-solving techniques. Are they effective? Undoubtedly and amazingly so.
Brainstorming
Just as an example, picture us as we ride into the sunset after a long day at the office participating with groups expanding and contracting through brainstorming about issues derived via fishbones and random input. My favorite so far is provocation, which would under other circumstances be called a “challenge” but in this case it is a lateral thinking technique.
And how do these concepts enable our decision processes? Well, not so subtly, we are drawn to the importance and significance of creative thinking as a direct connect to the lifeblood of businesses both small and large and the numbers cited for this conclusion by one study released by IBM are quite stunning with “79% of CEOs expect the business environment to become more complex in coming years” and then following that is the hidden nugget of “More than half of CEOs doubt their ability to manage this escalating complexity” and then more to the point: “A majority of CEOs cite creativity [italics mine] as the most important leadership skill required to cope with the growing complexity” [Tibbs, p 286]. If that doesn’t inspire you from a business point of view, i don’t know what will … these are surely exciting times!
Business Leadership, Management Vision, Teams & Collaboration