Insights-decision-making

Context helps to set a baseline understanding which is often wildly different between Boards and staff with different professional backgrounds. It should also help to convey the gravity (or not) of decisions.

Sketching scenarios allow us to narrow down some of the multitude of variables out there and start working on a few potential realities that we believe may occur.

Scenario generation may be viewed as “wasteful” as work goes into mapping things that turn out not to be used. However, in such uncertain times, knowing why you didn’t do something has a reassuring value, especially in associations where collective decision making and personal relationships play a key role.

Using scenarios helps us move quickly within defined parameters and agreed thresholds. It should build confidence in decision making as it aligns collective decision makers on the points considered.It also makes it clear if/when things happen that were not factored in. Mistakes are inevitable as we must make decisions at points in time set by fiscal years or event dates which are essentially arbitrary deadlines to the outside world.

Guiding principles should be agreed to help navigate or choose preferred scenarios as decisions will be made based on compromises and best guesses rather than objective facts or reliable forecasts. Potential reputational damage, for example, is very difficult to quantify in advance but must be a constant in an association’s scenario mapping.

This period provides a reality check about the current capabilities of tech-generated data or insights. No machine can yet process disparate data points that mix hard realities of budget, cashflow or cancellation terms, together with the emotions that come with association communities and their traditions being disrupted – using principles to guide a people centric decision-making process is key to the Board’s role today.

For some this will be a test of association culture. Trust in the leadership, transparency, communications and managing expectations are vital. Members must understand that tough decisions are made at pace and that not everyone can be consulted.

Here again, scenario sketching work can be adapted to provide insights for stakeholders into the decision-making process and why sometimes unpopular decisions have been made.

In a complex, imperfect world, we will make imperfect decisions. However, if we are clear on context, underlying assumptions when decisions had to be made, and our guiding principles, I believe associations can own those decisions collectively and make positive moves forward.