Life is so full of important decisions. What’s important differs, of course, by circumstances. The decision over which girl you ask to the prom is supremely important when you’re 16. But as you age, things get more real. In the corporate world, the best leaders surround themselves with people who can provide sage advice in decision making. The buck has to stop somewhere, of course, but smart leaders seek good counsel.
When I write this weekly column, I have no such checks and balances – what I write is what goes on the website. The stakes are low, of course – a stray typo may be a little irksome, but it doesn’t cause a furor. Believe it or not, I do read the column a couple of times after I’m “done”, and this enables me to catch some of more egregious errors and polish up the prose a bit before I post it.
Some clunkers do leak through, unfortunately.
Some clunkers do leak through, unfortunately.
On the Board of Directors, we subject ideas to everyone for comment, and this can be time-consuming, but an idea that gets honed and refined to a point that satisfies a majority of the group (sometimes a bare majority) will inevitably be a better idea than when it first came into being. This may seem tedious at times, but ideas that affect a large group of people (the CBA Membership) do need to be carefully considered before action is taken. I’m sure there are times when some people wonder how certain ideas ever survived this process, but it’s not possible to please everyone in a population as diverse as the CBA Membership!
All the best bands I’ve been in have a similar process. Song selection, arrangements, keys, harmonies – all these decisions seem to be made better when earnest back-and-forth amongst the band members takes place. Most bands have a leader of sorts who will direct the discussions and hold some sway, but music is always best when the players are all in on the process.
We’ve all hears stories of extraordinary individuals who had such a strong vision, and similarly strong confidence (and usually an ego to match) who scorned getting advice in their creative processes and achieved great results. It seems to me that sooner or later, the lack of a critical outside opinion eventually derails that success, and people scratch their heads and wonder what happened to the “genius” – I think it’s more of the odds catching up with them.
