How to make team decisions remotely

Making group decisions in the remote team might be tricky. We are humans and we like to see and feel each other to make decisions and do negotiations. But decision making can work perfectly with remote teams too. Let me explain how.

Today, I want to share with you the framework I use to make team decisions remotely.

Remote working can quickly become a lot tougher than it needs to be. When you are not in the same room as your mates, making a group decision can become difficult.

The reason why is straightforward:
Building consensus is a kind of negotiation. 

Remote negotiation is incredibly different compared to face2face negotiation.
Just think that when you share your opinion, you cannot read their body language and sometimes can't even hear their voices.

The main challenges

There are 3 main challenges involved while making a group decision in a remote team

• It's like organizing a group trip with your friends. 
  Who among us has never gone crazy trying to organize a trip with friends? Making a decision can be heartbreaking without a real-time connection to others - using email/chat and responding when you can.

• We tend to decide superficially without considering all options.
  Nobody will decide if you are in a situation where everyone can decide. Everyone will wait for someone to take the trouble to make the final decision. When this happens, everyone will tend to accept even just to end the discussion.

• The larger the group, the more different needs to match. 
  Some positions can be almost impossible to reconcile, making the light at the end of the tunnel seem even further away.

But luckily, there is a way to overcome the above challenges.

It is essential to define precise roles and rules of engagement.

A correct decision comes from an accurate analysis of the problem to be solved. The winning weapon is the definition of a structured system for making decisions.

The RAPID Decision-Making Model

As a 7 years old startup founder, I made thousands of group decisions. For the past 2 years, I have stabilized adopting the RAPID model. In a nutshell, the RAPID model assigns roles to everyone in the group to ensure your decision is made promptly and efficiently with minimum friction.

  Each teammate can fill one or more of the following roles:

• Agree. This person (or people) serves to verify a decision once made. They can also veto a decision if they disagree with it.

• Perform. This person (or people) carries out or action the decision once made.

• Input. This person (or people) brings as much information as possible for the group to make the best decision.

• Decide. This person (or people) has the final say.

A real example:

• Decision: purchase a new tool to design landing pages without coding.

• Agree. CMO + Marketing manager

• Perform. Marketing manager

• Input. Marketing Manager + Web designer

• Decide. CMO

You can fill multiple roles or change roles depending on each decision.

This model is compelling because it is flexible. You can apply it to every department's decisions, regardless of the topic's complexity.
The most important thing is to choose who covers the four different roles properly.  

Are you interested in learning more about this model?

Contact me with your questions. I'll be happy to help :)