A big business decision. Now what’s a Must and what’s a Want.

Issue / Opportunity – Pick the best system and get buy-in from the key stakeholders

A large and complex Australian business had identified the need for a new credit management system. This company had several hundred sites throughout Australia. While selection of a strong system was vital, just as important was gaining a high level of buy in from all stakeholders on which system was selected so that the implementation of the new system would be efficient and effective. A number of credit management systems had been identified as potential options but there was strong disagreement between various finance professionals in the business about which option was best.

Approach – use an impartial facilitator and a robust process

The senior executive team engaged me as an impartial facilitator to take the senior finance team through a structured decision making process. I used the Kepner Tregoe Process including a combination Situation Appraisal, Decision Analysis and Potential Problem Analysis. Finance professionals were flown in from the various interstate locations to head office and one day was allocated for the group to make their decision.

Conflict over key decision making criteria

About two hours into the session at 11am, John (name changed), one of the most senior people in the room stated confidently that whatever system was selected must meet a specific criteria. Immediately I saw a number of people’s eyes and shoulders drop. It had been clearly stated about an hour earlier that only one of the five options that were being considered could meet that specific criteria. At that point the group had identified 15 different decision objectives (the key criteria that would be used to compare the options), but it appeared that John was saying that only his preferred option could prevail, even before any more analysis.

Musts versus Wants. Crunch time

I said to John, we have identified both “Must” objectives (binary, in/out, yes/no criteria) and “Want” objectives in our list of 15. I then said, a bit boldly, “If what you say is true, even though I am booked till 5pm today, can I go home now on an early flight, because it seems you have made the decision?” Some people in the room smiled, they could see where this was going. The criteria that John was looking at was a Must in his eyes, but only a Want in everybody else’s mind. John did not put forward an argument to convince the team otherwise.

Musts determine who plays the game, but the Wants determine who wins the game.

John and the team agreed that the decision making objective that was in hot, but healthy debate, was in fact a Want objective. It was still very important, and when we weighted the list of Want objectives from 1 to 10, it did in fact get a weighting of 10.

So the 5 options were first screened against the Must objective (4 of the 15 objectives). Of the 5 options, 4 passed that test.

Then the remaining 4 options for the new credit management system were scored against the weighted Want objectives. Two of the options stood out, but it was line ball.

The Musts had determined who played the game (4 of the 5 options) but it was now the Wants that determined who won the game. Well almost.

Two winners, what to do?

They couldn’t pick two credit management systems. Two options had in fact almost come out with exactly the same score and it was also a high stakes decision.

Risk was used to make the final call

A Potential Problem Analysis was done on implementing the two options that were still being considered. It was still close, but one option was analysed as having unacceptable risk in the proposed implementation.

The recommendation was made. John was a bit disappointed that his preferred option was not selected, but both John and the team of Finance Managers were impressed by both the rigour and fairness of the process used and the new system was successfully implemented.

Significant ROI

Given the spend on a one day impartial facilitation, a client company with several hundred sites and a high stakes business decision that needed buy-in to be successful, there was certainly a significant ROI.

Do you have a high stakes decision to make?

Stoke Consulting are a team of seasoned professionals with strong facilitation skills. We can act as your impartial facilitator to guide your stakeholders through a complex decision.