Decision-making is crucial in propelling your business forward. You can’t beat your competitors or get ahead in the game if the right people in your organization don’t make the right decisions fast.

Sometimes, it takes longer to figure out who gets to decide rather than what the decision should be. Accountability can be ambiguous at different levels, especially for larger organizations. Do you know who should be making important ones at yours?

Whether it’s between product development or marketing, or a business unit or headquarters, there can be many restrictions on decision-making. The goal is to create a system that would make the process easier.

If a decision needs to be made regarding going global or staying local. Whether it’s about the supply chain or the market, a lot of companies operate on both global and local levels. How do you strike a balance?

Find out where your company derives value the most and align your decision with it. Take advantage of global opportunities but don’t let global executives dominate decision-making. Have local teams supplement these global efforts while maintaining authority over regional operations.

Besides global and regional teams, executives and business unit managers might also clash when an important decision needs to be made. Senior executives are not likely to know the details regarding other functional decisions.

To strike a balance, business unit managers can decide on what to do best especially for their operations, and the senior executives can support or veto it when they see fit.

There is also the problem that lies between different functions. Some teams make decisions thinking it’s best not to consult other teams. This can create more problems, as other teams might believe they should’ve been asked for their input.

Cross-functional decisions are probably the most difficult to make. This can be sorted out by establishing clear communication lines between teams. Connecting functions and figuring out how to best implement new rollouts, without sacrificing either teams’ goals, can be achieved by making sure that those who have valuable knowledge regarding the matter are allowed to provide input.

Streamlining decision-making and ensuring that everyone who offers valuable input is listened to can give your organization the boost it needs. Taking these steps can make meetings more illuminating and efficient. When responsibilities are shared, an organization can shine brighter.

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