Stanford Strategic Decision and Risk Management

Sample Course Syllabus
Decision Leadership

Course Description

Courses at Stanford provide participants the opportunity to interact with Stanford faculty and SDG instructors.

Understanding "Decision Leadership"

When a decision is needed in a context that is both organizationally and analytically complex, it is the decision leader's role to guide the team to a high quality decision.

To do this, a decision leader must understand:
  • What is decision quality?
  • How do I manage the fundamentals of decision meetings?
  • What are the keys to effective group process in this context?
  • How do I evaluate and improve the quality of the decision team's work product?
Ultimately, the decision leader must share responsibility with the team and the decision makers for the quality of the decision.

Leading Meetings in the Decision Process

Effective decision leaders demonstrate competence in all aspects of a meeting:
  • Design
  • Appropriately engage the right set of participants / stakeholders
  • Understand the meeting's task and how it fits in the overall decision dialogue
  • Choose an effective meeting process
Open
  • Set the tone
  • Cover task, process, and schedule
  • Clarify ground rules and roles
Manage
  • Manage discussion
  • Stay on task and on schedule
  • Resolve meeting problems
Close
  • Confirm progress, agreements, and next steps
  • Preserve the meeting record
  • Follow up on outstanding tasks
Each task has different importance in the various stages of the Dialogue Decision Process.

Managing Group Dynamics in a Decision Environment

Group dynamics inevitably come into play in decision meetings. The effective decision leader knows how to:
  • Manage expectations of meeting participants
  • Apply preventions to keep problems from occurring in the meeting
  • Manage conflict that arises, using interventions to keep the meeting on track
  • Reach effective agreements that will stick at each step in the decision process
Managing group dynamics is particularly important in the decision context because of the presence of organizational complexities, and because of the many biases and distortions that can impact the group's interaction.
A decision leader must be able to lead the project team and the decision board through effective working sessions and productive dialogue, facilitating agreement and clarity of action despite the group's interpersonal and organizational dynamics.

Building Quality into the Decision Team's Work Products

Decision leaders must ensure quality in many different situations, ranging from individual interviews to project team meetings to decision board meetings.
To ensure quality, decision leaders must:
  • Know the attributes of high quality for each dimension of the decision
  • Understand the project team members and recognize the biases and distortions that are relevant for them in a given context
  • Understand the decision board's perspectives and their tendencies toward biases or distortions
  • Anticipate group challenges and the interventions that will minimize their impacts on quality
  • Design processes that will maximize the probability of high quality work products and highly productive meetings
  • Guide the project team in thoughtful evaluation of their work product, challenging them to improve on dimensions with lower quality
  • Lead the decision board through a thorough consideration of the decision content and its quality, enabling dialogue and facilitating agreement

Understanding your Capabilities as a Decision Leader

Effective decision leadership begins with understanding the role and assessing your own capabilities to fill the role of facilitator and decision leader.
Participants will be provided with pre-reading to review the fundamentals of facilitation and team management. Additional self-assessments on emotional intelligence and other competencies may also be used.

Role plays of various team situations will provide opportunities for practice, and coaching will provide perspective on specific capabilities and areas for potential improvement.

Course Description