Mastering Decision-Making: Empowering Teams and Mental Models

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Hey everyone, welcome back to Ask Hartley Anything, Episode 4. This is the podcast where I take your questions and share insights from my journey as an engineering leader. Today, we’re diving into mastering decision-making—empowering both your teams and yourself to make faster decisions, along with some mental models to help you do that. We’ll provide frameworks and systems so it’s not as overwhelming.

Before we get into the first question, remember you can go to askhartley.com to submit your questions, anonymously or otherwise. So far, we’ve been able to cover all four episodes with questions from you. I initially started this unsure if folks would actually send anything in, so I'm thrilled you're doing that and appreciate every question.

Today’s topic is helping teams make decisions confidently and using mental models for better, faster decisions. Our question comes from “third place,” possibly referencing a Fantasy football league—I'm not entirely sure. Third place asks:

Hey John, in episode two you briefly mentioned over-democratizing decision making. Could you elaborate more on this topic and how to realign your team so people feel comfortable making decisions? Does a tech lead need to step up as somewhat of a dictator to ensure timely decisions? Is this a superpower bestowed by management or leadership?

Great question! If you haven’t listened to Episode Two, feel free to go back after this one. Over-democratizing decision-making can be a problem in organizations. It’s when every decision is put out for a vote or discussion, dragging on endlessly. While it’s good to get differing opinions, it shouldn’t hinder timely decision-making.

I’ve seen this happen with RFCs (Requests for Comments) in engineering organizations. You put up a proposal for something like a big architectural change, and it either gets stuck in endless comments or no one responds at all. One way to resolve this is by giving tight timelines: say you have a week for comments, then you’ll address them and make a decision.

A key decision-maker can help break the cycle of indecision—whether that’s your VP of Engineering or a group of directors. Sometimes a simple thumbs-up/thumbs-down vote can work too.

Fear of making the wrong decision often paralyzes teams. It’s crucial to foster a culture where failure is acceptable and reversible decisions are encouraged. For instance, in code, you can revert changes or use feature flags to test new implementations.

I prefer POCs (Proofs of Concept) over RFCs because they allow you to test ideas quickly without getting bogged down in endless debate. A POC shows tangible progress and helps move things forward faster.

Now, who makes the final decision? It depends on the size of the decision. Smaller decisions can be made by tech leads or senior engineers within their teams. Larger system changes might need input from staff engineers or even higher up the chain like VPs or CTOs.

For major strategic shifts like re-platforming, involving top leadership makes sense since it aligns with the company's overall strategy.

To avoid micromanagement and promote autonomy, give teams frameworks for decision-making. Document how decisions should be made within your organization so everyone knows the process.

Curious how decisions are made at your company? Writing it out can reveal how democratized your process really is. But don’t let decisions linger; set deadlines for making them.

Switching gears slightly—if you want resources on better decision-making, Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow is excellent. Remember that all decisions are made with partial information; you'll never have every piece of data.

Let’s talk about some mental models:

1. **Eisenhower Matrix**: Prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance.

2. **Opportunity Cost**: Consider what you're giving up by choosing one option over another.

3. **OODA Loop**: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—a continuous improvement cycle.

4. **Inversion**: Instead of asking how you can succeed, ask how you could fail and mitigate those risks upfront.

These models help create repeatable frameworks for making faster decisions with confidence.

So we've covered decision-making and some mental models today. If you have more questions, visit askhartly.com or find me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening! Tune in next week for Episode 5.