Unavoidable Tensions
Impact of Deciding
When managers are working within an organization, their impact is captured by the decisions that they take.
That is why this account of needs
to be understood in conjunction with deciding and achieving
Decision-making can occur in 7 distinct ways. When these are plotted on a TET, they fall into two distinct groups (referred to as the approach duality):
- systematic and comprehensive enabling inner control of outer complexity
- responsive and rapid enabling sensitive immediate handling of difficult situations.
This systematic v responsiveduality defines the pressure under which managers find themselves in practice. Do you get proper control of the situation which means being systematic, rational and organised—but takes time and uses resources? or do you respond in a near-spontaneous, gut-feel, intuitive way, so ensuring that at least something is done quickly?
As usual, the tension is handled differently at different management levels and the standard pattern is again revealed:
- demand a fusion or synthesis of the duality in practice.
- force a polarization into two distinct modes of accountability. In these levels, it is necessary to clarify which pole (Centre) dominates.
Formulae
Centres that are systematic and comprehensive are indicated by a subscript S,
Centres that are responsive and rapid are indicated by a subscript R.
Centres that fuse or synthesize the two poles are indicated by a subscript B for balanced.
In diagrams:
Levels where the two poles are distinct will have the dominant Centre placed on the right. Balanced Centres are placed centrally.
- Now consider how the tension is handled at each Level.
Originally posted: 22-Feb-2014