I had a conversation the other day with the head of IT in a globally known organization. He was trying to justify the expense of buying ProVision?. He told me that the IT department really understood the point of it, but people in the business side were lukewarm. He asked me whether he should hold off buying the software until the business was supportive, or get started and wait for them to catch up. I told him that if he started without their support they would never catch up. If he waited for them to catch up he would be waiting for ever.

Then there was a third option.

I asked him, "What's the biggest issue in the business right now?" He said, "We never have enough time."

So then I asked him, "How long does it take to make a major decision?" He paused for a moment. "I suppose it takes at least six months, sometimes longer."

So then I said, "If there was a way to make the same decision in six weeks, perhaps even a better decision, how would that feel." His eyes lit up. "Oh, that would be fantastic. People get so frustrated by how long it takes to get decisions made. It would be wonderful."

So then I said, "What would you get if all the decisions you made took less than six weeks, rather than more than six months?" He thought about it awhile. I could see he was struggling. "I'm not sure what you mean", he said eventually.

"Well", I said, "You just told me that the biggest issue around here is the lack of time. What do you get more of if decisions take six weeks or less?" He smiled. "We would get more time."

We grinned at each other, "Exactly", I said. "The reason you don't have any time is that the decision-making process is sucking all the oxygen. So, how can you accelerate the decision-making process? First you have to give up the belief that a slow decision is a good decision and a fast decision is necessarily a bad one. It has nothing to do with speed. So let's examine why the decision making process is so slow."

"We are very concerned about our reputation. We want to do everything of the highest quality. We usually take years to plan some of the things that we do. There are a lot of people to consult."

"I am guessing. So you arrange a meeting and then it gets cancelled because a key person can't be there?"

"Oh yes, that happens all the time. And when a meeting gets cancelled it can take a month or two before everyone's diaries are free."

"When you make a decision, you need to have a shared understanding of what it is that you want to do. That is what all those meetings are about, trying to ensure that everyone is on the same page. To do this you construct models. The thing is that the models that you make are inside your head.

There are a few problems with this. Nobody can see your models. They are invisible to the world and as you get new information you change the models at a moment's notice and nobody will know.

When you are examining the models you may forget details or you may be distracted. As a result your models are incomplete and distorted.

In a large and complex organization you can't understand everything. You have your own unique perspective. So, even if you are operating at your best, your models are incomplete and inaccurate.

If you go on leave, or are away for some reason, then nobody has access to your models. If you quit the organization, the models walk out the door inside your head. Your successor has to start all over again constructing their models. While they may be able to recover the information they may never get the same insights. The process takes months, sometimes years. You don't have a choice about whether to make models or not. You have to use models to make decisions. There is no other way. Your only choice is whether you make those models visible or invisible, shared or individual.

What you call a meeting is a group of people sitting around trying to synchronize their mental models. Until this is done you can't begin to make a decision. What happens is that politics and psychology come into play. It is human nature. I try and persuade you that my mental model is better than yours. You get offended. You then try and coerce me to accept your model. And so it goes on. The whole human soap opera continues and in the meanwhile the decision gets delayed.

Now if you take all the key information and put it into a centrally-managed model, the game changes. Vital information that was scattered now becomes accessible. It doesn't replace mental models. However, everyone is responsible for synchronizing their mental models to the common shared model. When a decision needs to be made you print out the relevant models for everyone to see and discuss. If someone can't be there then it doesn't matter because their knowledge is embedded in the central model. If they want to attend the meeting but are away then they can participate remotely.

The trick is not to overload the central model. You need to put just enough information in to enable a better decision to be made than would have happened otherwise. The more information you add, the more you have to maintain. Too little, and the information is insufficient. Too much, and the information is too hard to manage and interpret."

He paused for a moment. This was a lot to take in.

Eventually he said, "So what you are saying is that I need to demonstrate that ProVision? can be used to save time. We need to treat the decision-making process like any other. We make a model of how it runs right now and then show how we can simplify and improve it."

"Yes."

"If the business sees the tool as some kind of technical thing then they will never show any interest. If they see it as part of a strategy to make better decisions now then they will see the point."

"That's about the size of it."

"So, how do you build the model?"

"That's up to you. If you use the Enterprise Designer framework, it can be done in two weeks."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Only two weeks?"

"Yes. After that you add detail one project at a time. When you do a project you have to spend time thinking up front anyway. It doesn't take any more effort to put it into the central repository. In fact it takes less."