AP Benefits

A quick summary of the benefits we receive when we use the Advice Process

Why do we do this anyway?

The more decisions I made, the less engaged others become, and the less ownership they had in the results - Dennis Bakke

All this AP business would seem a lot of effort, if there weren’t significant benefits to putting such a process in place. Thankfully, there are. Here’s a rundown.

Collaboration

• Everyone becomes more engaged: people feel more ownership when their advice is sought. Even if their advice isn't followed, at least they feel heard and part of the process.

• When decisions involve more people who are fully engaged, an organisation has a higher chance of a good outcome than it does with a conventional top-down approach, thanks to greater levels of buy-in.

Accountability

• When decisions are made by the people who are closest to the problem, they understand the context. Another factor in increasing the likelihood of success of an initiative.

• With full accountability comes ownership; people are more inclined to work towards the success of the project, as if it were their own.

Transparency

• Transparency ensures the process is self-policing – if you’re worried about what other people might think about your decision, then perhaps it's not such a great decision (or demands further consideration).

• It’s harder to not give the advice process its proper attention when others are looking in.

• Transparency is a prerequisite to ensure we don’t descend into chaos. Where decisions have wide impact, a visible decision-making process helps those impacted to understand what/how/why something is happening.

• Transparency aligns decision making in terms of consistency, in the absence of a central decision-making authority.

• Transparency helps people learn how to make better decisions (especially if we come back to decisions retrospectively to record the results). This is the point of the advice process, to help people become better decision makers on management-like decisions.

• Transparency provides a wider organisational context, helping to reduce waste and providing the platform to make better decisions.

Feedback and Learning

• Decisions that are made by people who are closest to the action receive faster feedback on the outcome, therefore providing a faster learning loop.

• The AP provides ongoing on-the-job education – no training can match real-world experience.