<aside> 💡 “Anyone can make any decision, so long as they are willing to take responsibility for the outcome, and they have first listened to input from anyone who will be affected, or who has relevant expertise”, Rich Bartlett.

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The Advice Process: steps 🔢

1. Take initiative — having noticed an issue or opportunity you have the responsibility to take the initiative. If you feel you are not best placed to make a decision then seek help from a colleague.
2. Gather input — prior to proposing a decision you may choose to seek input in order to gather perspectives on the issue or opportunity.
3. Seek advice on your proposed decision — once you have a decision or proposal in mind you need to seek advice from i) those with expertise on the subject matter, and ii) those who will be meaningfully affected by your decision (if you are unsure who they are then ask around and chat to your colleagues).
4. Make a decision & tell people — having taken all advice into account, which you are obliged to do, you then make your decision and inform those who have given advice.

Getting started 🧪

First and foremost, those who hold power must genuinely be willing to let some go. If they are then you can:

• Seek a group that is open to experimenting with the advice process - don’t impose the experiment top-down. Proceed only with the group’s consent.
• Share the advice process steps in writing. Feel free to copy and paste from here.
• Co-create a ‘safe to try’ experiment, e.g. let’s use the advice process for four weeks for all decisions and then hold a retrospective on how it went.
• Iterate the process during this timeframe - make it suit your team.
• Share your learnings with other teams - if it went well or shows promise hopefully others will be keen to give it a go!

Tips & things to remember 💡

I have used this wonderful process in various organisations and here are some pointers and things I learned along the way:

• Anyone can make any decision - provided they follow the advice process.