Better Decisions, One Peer at a Time
Sally, a senior executive, paces outside the conference room fidgeting with her BlackBerry. Inside sit eight displeased board members and a CEO under fire. Three hours prior the CEO handed a bombshell to Sally and told her to have recommendations to the board after lunch. The decision would impact a good chunk of the firm’s revenue. Every employee would feel the reverberation of a misstep. Ten years ago how would Sally have responded to that challenge? How will Sally respond in two years time? The decreasing costs of communication and the emergence of online only peer networks provide a hint as to the possibilities.
Quite a bit of attention has been paid to how companies interact with their customers. The rise of social networks has spawned new ways for businesses to solicit customer feedback (IdeaStorm) or find prospects (Hoover’s Connect). However, no one model has yet managed to fundamentally change the way the average executive interacts with their peers. The precipitous decline in communication costs, the rise of “social networks” and the validation of a commons based peer production models (e.g. Wikipedia), all point to a shift in how our society processes and produces information. In this I see the potential to shift how an executive makes decisions.
This blog will explore that potential. It will propose hypothesis, test them in the real world and share the findings here. I invite you to do the same, through your comments here and on your own blogs.
But first, let’s back up to examine a bit of the “why now?” aspect.
Provenance: Less Time, More Information
1. Compressed Decision-Making Cycles
Compared to five years ago, the average time to decision for an executive has compressed significantly. The “always on” power of Email, Blackberry, and global operations has institutionalized a reactive decision-making mode. Traditional methods of supporting executive decision making, specifically traditional management consulting, no longer provide timely support. Executives need information faster.
2. Needles in the Haystack
The cost of discrete information is near free thanks to Google. Never before in the history of humankind could we find the exact make and model of a carburetor in a 1967 Chevy Impala and four stores to buy it in less than thirty seconds. However, that doesn’t help us solve ambiguous, ill-defined, experience-based problems.
3. Peer Review
Peer review has always been a component of decision making. Sultans, Presidents, even Tony Soprano have all had a grand vizier, a cabinet, or a consigliere. However, too often these peers are too close to the issue and bring their inherent biases to bear in their feedback. The expansion of the Internet and asynchronous communication tools will enable executives to tap the collective wisdom of peers from across the globe.
A Wikipedia model for business executives is preposterous. I do not see a world in which marketing plans, financial statements, or advertising copy is produced via a Wikipedia analog. Those types of information products do not lend themselves to a commons production method due to their nature – in other words not modular and requiring a fair bit of effort to produce. However, a global network of executives that share common experiences could provide input on common set of challenges and advise the best way forward. We know that model works. Companies like the Corporate Executive Board [note - this is where I work], Gartner, and Forrester all make their bread and butter talking to senior executives about their challenges
What We Believe
Ten years ago, Sally would have walked in to that conference room with little more than her own experience and the thoughts of her close personal network. Not much to gamble a career on.
In our vision of the future, Sally walks into that Boardroom with six solid recommendations from executives that had similar experience and succinctly shared feedback on Sally’s proposed plan. Sally receives reliable feedback at the right time in order to inform the right decision.
How do we bring our vision to fruition? Where do we go from here? This blog will explore the roadmap to building a community that supports decision making. Your input and feedback will be critical. It may be that this hasn’t happened before simply because it cannot. Reach out, share your thoughts, and hopefully together we’ll build an idea that can increase the effectiveness of executives and their enterprises.
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