By Jacob McAfee
In any profession, decisions are made every day that change the course of all future events, large and small. While a decision in and of itself may seem easy, most easy things are hard. In the fire service, the number of variables that go into these decision processes can grow into a web of stakeholders, inputs, outcomes, experiences, training, vicarious learning, and physical and emotional investments that may need to be analyzed. Considering these variables, determining the best course can take either seconds or significantly longer, depending on the leader’s experience, relationships, position, or the seriousness of the decision. Almost all decisions have an external or internal impact on someone or something. Seemingly small decisions (washing the apparatus at night versus in the morning before a shift change) or large decisions (shutting down fire stations) are impacted by the variables within the decision matrix, including the self-preservation of the decision maker. This applies to people above and below you, as you navigate or communicate the leader’s intent, politics, emotions, personalities, data, and strategic alignment towards common goals.
任何决定通常会影响更多的人那n originally anticipated. Knowing this and identifying where each stakeholder’s interest lies may help you as you navigate the decision-making process. For decisions of a non-emergent nature that have the luxury of time, there are multiple collaborative and innovative processes that allow you to make informed decisions. The goal is to ensure that all stakeholders feel like their concerns were either addressed, considered, or will be addressed in future planning opportunities. Almost no decision is made by one individual. It is made with the understanding that internal and external influence exist. Considering each stakeholder’s interests along with your experiences will be key to a confident decision. Being able to do this effectively at any level can sometimes be referred to as political acumen. This skill pushes you to think like a politician without having to act like one. No matter your rank, the ability to think systematically with political acumen will allow you to reach across boundaries, interests, relationships, and alliances both to make more informed decisions but increase the impact of that decision.
您在理解每个人的利益方面越有效，您将越有效地创造一个充满活力和自适应的对话，通过您的决定鼓励运动和行动，而不是论证和反对。请记住，没有决定是完美的，也不是从桌子的各个方面都有完全的买入。这里的关键是你解决了利益相关者，让每个人都感到听到，无视没有人。无视利益攸关方可以让一个小问题更大，并在你的兴趣越过线路时给你问题。您无法完全预测，您可能需要在未来所需的支持，并且可能存在您在长期游戏中预计的联盟。
Leaders who focus on the people impacts from the decision and practice political acumen establish themselves as well equipped to make informed decisions. These leaders will be able to create and sustain relationships across all factions or groups; educate external stakeholders on their organizations value; more effectively develop board “buy in” at all levels; and be better equipped to make a persuasive case for their decision.
So how do you find these hidden interests or stakeholders so you can make informed decisions?
虽然我没有专家，但我在两个主要主题左右的一些做法取得了成功：关系建设和某种类型的原因和效应分析。关系建设意味着通过做解决。沉浸在其他小组上，并寻求理解他们的立场和/或认识到“有影响力的球员”，并听取他们所说的话。更多的次数不是，人们将他们的兴趣展示，但它们可能被偏见或常见的谈话掩盖。听力可以提供很大的见解。
Cause-and-effect analysis means using tools and exercises to gather information. As you go through these drills, common stakeholders emerge. These exercises uncover common positions or deeply held values. In this way you can understand various perspectives quickly.
Here are three potential tools/exercises for you to use when collaborating with your team to help uncover positions and investments across stakeholders that improve the quality of your decision.
- Investment grid
- Fish bone chart
- 思维导图
Investment Grid
In the investment grid you will have the far-left column with questions you want answered. In the remaining columns on the top row you will have factions or stakeholder groups. In each box below, you will put how the group answered the questions in the far-left column. As these questions are answered you will understand everyone’s position, their desired outcome, how committed they are to it, and what may influence them to move more left or right.
This chart is expandable depending on the decision and the number of stakeholders involved. The below is only an example, as questions and stakeholders can change an unlimited amount of times.
Fish Bone Chart
Above is a sample look at a “fish bone” chart. The fish bone chart can identify potential root causes of problems, and can be done prior to a decision or after, once challenges appear. The way to use this tool is to group various causes into categories. In this case the causes are organizations, people, builders, site, planning, and equipment. The causes cascade from the main categories, flowing toward the effect, forming what resembles a fish bone appearance. The idea here is to identify the potential problems or stakeholder interests that may be related to the problem. This allows you to identify the root cause and can help you make informed decisions more effectively by rooting out potential issues on the front end. As you do this more, it can be applied to small everyday decisions and done rapidly.
思维导图
思维导图starts with one main idea that you may need to implement at your department.
- 首先在纸张中心，白板，屏幕或您所拥有的任何内容中写出主要思想。
- Once your main idea is down you and your team should, start to think of major subtopics that will affect your main idea. Identify as many as possible.
- Expand on these further to identify opportunities, challenges, stakeholder investments, and more.
- Once you are done doing this for one subtopic, move to another.
- This progresses until you have mapped out all the potential items or topics related to your main idea.
When you are finished, you have a comprehensive layout of what or who needs to be addressed before you move on your decision. When the decision is made, you will have done everything you can to avoid significant challenges or backsliding later on.
您还可以使用它来识别所有的团体,players, or people who will be impacted by the decision or goal. This will help you recognize who you need to talk with more, what they want to know, how you need to approach the situation, and what positive or negative impacts may come from the decision. In this example, the goal is to implement an ALS squad company as part of a department’s deployment model. The larger green rings are the main stakeholders, the smaller green rings the subtopics, and the smaller grey circles are all the factors that affect each subtopic. This is just a small example. In this case, the stakeholders may grow exponentially depending on your department or jurisdiction.
尽管these tools are extremely basic, they can assist you in developing your political acumen during the decision-making process. Over time, as you do this more often, you will start to see trends in the way certain groups or people think or the things they care about. This further develops your mental slide deck through the relationships you have built and your investment in understanding the formal and informal influences that shape decision making. You will over time be able to see the impacts of your decision and who it will influence early and at a faster rate.
Eventually, you can make the best decisions quickly by using the orient, observe, decide, and act (OODA) loop cycle. According to Boyd, “decision-making occurs in a recurring cycle of observe–orient–decide–act. An entity (whether an individual or an organization) that can process this cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby ‘get inside’ the opponent’s decision cycle and gain the advantage.” Boyd talks about the “orient” phase as one of the most important, since here you take all of your previous experiences and knowledge into account and analyze it with all of the observations you have made to ensure what you observed and how you are oriented match. After these stages you move to the decision phases (DA). Think of my previous discussion on the decision tools in use. After you have done them with similar people, in similar groups, or working for similar agencies, all the information you have gathered becomes part of a quick observation and orientation of the people and environment, enabling you to make a quick decision. As you do this more frequently in the various places you go, the OODA loop process becomes a more successful way to take decisive action.
上面的方法轮廓是您决策工具箱的一些工具。决定并不容易;它们涉及各方向的许多影响层。您正在进行此过程的越多，您就越准备好了，即现在和未来的决定。
雅各布麦克菲，EFO，CFO，CTO，MiFiree是北部中央（加利福尼亚州）消防区的副消防局长，弗雷斯诺市学院消防学院导演。188博金宝体育1他是前国防部消防队长，拥有20年的消防服务经验。在那个时候，他曾在四个不同的国家工作过，并在每个消防部门担任一名职务人员。他是加州州火灾总线办公室和加州专业培训学院的注册教练。他完成了国家消防学院行政消防官员（EFOP）188博金宝体育1，并持有公共安全卓越中心（CPSE）的首席消防官（CFO）和首席培训官（CTO）凭据。
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