Alignment and working across teams

Get good at alignment and execution across groups

Easy to say, but how can you actually do it? A good decision doc can get you 80% of the way there

A decision doc lays out the situation, the decision needing to be made, your recommendations, risks, and next steps.

I’ve put together a basic template you can steal

HOWEVER - you don’t need a decision doc for everything. Here’s how to tell when you should use one:

❗ You need to drive a decision that requires buy-in from multiple stakeholders

ℹ context is required, and you don’t want to explain the same thing to each stakeholder separately

⚖ The decision may require trade offs, or there are risks involved that need to be either accepted or mitigated

❓ You are likely to have to answer the question “why did we decide to do X” long after you can easily recall the details

Share the doc ahead of meetings, and you will accomplish several things:

💡 you’ll run an effective meeting where you can focus on the important factors rather than explaining the background

💡 you’ll get better objections and feedback from the team, resulting in better decisions being made

💡 your team will get a strong sense that you have your stuff together and will trust you more