Open Decision-Making (2014)

#1

Post by robfig » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 2:04 AM UTC

Open Decision-Making (2014)
web.stanford.edu

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#2

Post by gkop » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 3:22 AM UTC

Interesting subject, disappointing article. I wish the author would provide a bit of the historical context of their approach within the field of management science.

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#3

Post by devnonymous » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 3:38 AM UTC

Interesting article. FWIW, although unrelated, this is by John Ousterhout, the author of "A philosophy of software design"

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?q=a+philosophy+of+software+design

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#4

Post by bricemo » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 3:47 AM UTC

Almost all of the hard decisions I’ve seen in my career stemmed from this one line that is glossed over: “when consensus doesn't occur it's because there isn't a clear answer or because there is a conflict between groups. In these situations it's up to management to make a decision so the organization can move forward.” This happens very often with design vs. product.

I was disappointed this wasn’t dug into deeper. All the examples given seem easy: picking a logo or hiring someone. But the harder ones are around things like “what is the overall direction for the company”, “who is our real customer”, “what is the main value prop of our product”, etc. In these discussions there can be die hard commitment on different sides from different departments. I don’t see a poll helping in this situation, and the author admits that too, which kind of makes the whole approach for simple decisions only.

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#5

Post by noduerme » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 4:02 AM UTC

I'm not sure if it's a stylistic choice or a badge of 90s hackerdom, but this and the next top HN personal blog post right now have no scaling or view metas and are impossible to read on a phone. I feel like open decision-making isn't working well if it hasn't reached a consensus yet about mobile readability. (I'm just being snarky because I'm in the middle of rewriting a ton of ancient mobile-unfriendly code, but, really I would polish up my presentation before I put something on HN).

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#6

Post by Iv » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 4:21 AM UTC

When explained the way decisions are made in Japan, I encountered a notion that I wish was more considered: the idea that taking a decision is a separate process than applying the decision.

Since then, I have wondered why no companies tried to make the processes separate, like we do in democratic countries by separating legislative, judiciary and executive branches.

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#7

Post by sideproject » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 4:35 AM UTC

“Oh Concensus - The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus?'” - Margaret Thatcher

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#8

Post by dreamer7 » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 4:51 AM UTC

bricemo wrote: post #4

Almost all of the hard decisions I’ve seen in my career stemmed from this one line that is glossed over: “when consensus doesn't occur it's because there isn't a clear answer or because there is a conflict between groups. In these situations it's up to management to make a decision so the organization can move forward.” This happens very often with design vs. product. I was disappointed this wasn’t dug into deeper. A…

Ya there are some decisions that are best taken from the top like “what is the overall direction for the company”, “who is our real customer”.

We should absolutely listen to the views of anyone in the company who has an opinion but some questions require a lot more knowledge and maturity than individual departments may have.

In many of these questions, there are several right answers so we only need to decide the answer that we are most driven by. The people who are most invested in the company are the ones to whom such answers must appeal.

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#9

Post by dreamer7 » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 4:53 AM UTC

Iv wrote: post #6

When explained the way decisions are made in Japan, I encountered a notion that I wish was more considered: the idea that taking a decision is a separate process than applying the decision. Since then, I have wondered why no companies tried to make the processes separate, like we do in democratic countries by separating legislative, judiciary and executive branches.

Could you elaborate on this? How does the distinction between taking and applying affect the decision making process?

Re: Open Decision-Making (2014)

#10

Post by asplake » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 4:59 AM UTC

noduerme wrote: post #5

I'm not sure if it's a stylistic choice or a badge of 90s hackerdom, but this and the next top HN personal blog post right now have no scaling or view metas and are impossible to read on a phone. I feel like open decision-making isn't working well if it hasn't reached a consensus yet about mobile readability. (I'm just being snarky because I'm in the middle of rewriting a ton of ancient mobile-unfriendly code, but, r…

Reader mode on Safari works ok, if that’s any help