Decisions at work aren’t the same as choosing lunch. When you pick hummus or a burger, the only person affected is you. At work, even small choices ripple outward—shaping what teammates do next, introducing constraints, and creating new opportunities or burdens. That difference matters because decisions at work are both social and emotional, and most organizations treat them like they’re only rational.
Decisions are social
Every choice you make on a shared project immediately changes someone else’s context. Choosing to build a feature, scrap one, or alter a timeline creates dependencies, handoffs, and new assumptions for other people. When a team has healthy decision habits, those choices keep work moving and reduce dropped balls and slippery handoffs—what I like to call “Crisco watermelons.” With poor habits, even tiny choices can create a quagmire of stalled work and confusion.
Decisions are emotional
People don’t decide in a vacuum. Fears, uncertainties, optimism, and other emotions get activated whenever a decision is on the table. That’s why the classic “just show better data and everyone will agree” approach fails so often. Ignoring the emotional and social dimensions leaves teams baffled when resistance appears—resistance rooted not in logic, but in worry, habit, or hidden incentives.
Why teams avoid risk
Teams often pick the “safe” options because of history and culture. They choose paths that annoy the boss or delay action over taking a risk that could end badly. The logic is simple: disrupting leadership is uncomfortable, but being stuck until a manager returns feels less risky than making the wrong call and jeopardizing a job. The result is widespread deference and a lot of stalled momentum.
The cost to leaders
When executives become the default decision-makers, it piles huge mental and emotional pressure on them. They can’t step away from the collaborative process even briefly—ignoring a message might cost the team hours of work. They struggle to set boundaries, can’t recharge, and are constantly in demand. That’s bad for leaders and bad for teams. Leaders should distribute the power, function, and process of decision-making so the team can move forward without creating a single point of failure.
What individual contributors can do
If you’re not a leader, it can feel like you have no power over how decisions are made. You may have tried to change the process and ended up in a power struggle. Whether you won or lost, that kind of fight usually drains energy. Instead, consider two axes of approach:
- Find ways to do good work within the existing constraints.
- Learn how decisions are actually made in your organization so you can align and influence better going forward.
Ask the right question
Your most useful question as an individual contributor is: “What’s the best process for me to learn how decisions are made here?” That question is powerful because it depersonalizes the issue, sounds neutral and curious rather than combative, and signals that there may be hidden reasons behind decisions. Good leaders will often pause and reflect when asked this; many don’t spend much time thinking about their decision process.
Why this helps
Learning how decisions are made does three things:
- It helps you do your work without constant interruptions.
- It teaches you how to advance ideas using the actual mechanics of your organization.
- It sets the stage for running sprints to improve the team’s decision-making over time.
A note on intent-based decision-making
Intent-based approaches help solve two common problems. First, decisions are sometimes made by people far removed from the work—leaders issuing orders about things they don’t do daily. Second, decisions often get pushed back onto bosses, creating bottlenecks. Both patterns slow teams and disconnect decisions from the reality they affect.
Practical takeaway
Decisions at work always affect others. Treat them as social and emotional processes, not just rational problems to be solved with data. If you’re a leader, share decision power and create a clear process so the team can move forward without you being the choke point. If you’re an individual contributor, learn the decision mechanics of your organization and ask, “What’s the best way for me to learn how decisions are made here?” That single change in approach reduces conflict, improves momentum, and gives you leverage to make better contributions without getting stuck in power struggles.
Source : Team Habits: How Small Actions Lead to Extraordinary Results by Charlie Gilkey
Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64000103-team-habits
Read the Previous Article in the Series :
Thinking Beyond Science 
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