Small Business Decision Making – Start With Non-Negotiables

Small Business Decision Making – Start With Non-negotiables

Back to the mailbox and voice mail for topics. One of my favorite topics is Decision Making because when out “developing business”, I’m beholden to my prospective clients’ decision making skills. I’m obsessed with the topic.

In helping my clients make good decisions, I listen very carefully for one thing: non-negotiables.

I’ve heard them referred to in various terms: critical inclusions, must haves, vitals, prerequisites and needs. They are what you consider the most important element(s) of the decision you are making.

First things first. I’m not referring to your daily decisions. These comments are geared toward those decisions that clients consider to be worth mulling over. Generally they center on direction, investment, hiring or branding. The big stuff.

Back to the main point. Finding the non-negotiables. Why is it that the must-haves are so important? It’s not because they are going to make the decision any easier, it’s because they’ll guide you when things get tough. When everything breaks down, your non-negotiables will make things more palatable.

For my small business friends that want to get better at working through your key decisions, here are my 3 Checks for non-negotiables.

First, inside most of your big decisions are very few “must haves”. One, sometimes two, at most three. If a client comes at me with a laundry list of items they cannot do without, it’s a warning sign. It’s going to be hard work narrowing the focus. What do non-negotiables sound like? The good news is that they aren’t uniform. I’ve heard executives center on launch date, staff participation, vendor selection, and confidentiality. The main point here is that it can’t be all of those things. Every want cannot be a need.

Second, if you’re having issues deciding what your non-negotiables are, start defining what they aren’t. Sounds simple and trite, but it’s an effective tool. If the conversation prompt “What is the must-have in this project” isn’t working for you, get that list of everything out and start removing requirements. Confidentiality on the list? Take it out. Imaging word of the project leaking to the press and showing up on page 3. Is that going to ruin everything? No? Then it’s not a non-negotiable. What if we didn’t use Carol during the wire-framing of the app? It gets built, deployed and new requirements pop up? That’s not acceptable? Then Carol’s team involvement might be a non-negotiable. You get the point.

Third, the non-negotiables that you take off the list belong on your “wants” list, right? Go ahead and make that “want” list long and don’t worry about having it ranked top to bottom. The effort is in defining those items you can’t live without. Work to view everything else as a bonus. It takes the pressure off the “wants” and has a tendency to free those requirements up and insure their value.

Does this help?

As I look over these 3 Checks, they might be a little opaque. I’m trying not to default to “you’ll know them when you hear them” but until you start focusing on defining your absolute non-negotiable when making a decision, wants look a lot like needs.

The good news is that you as you practice defining your non-negotiables, you can control the impact of big decisions according to the amount of risk you’re willing to take. And believe it or not, your ability to define the non-negotiables will increase your tolerance for risk. The better you are at defining your must-haves and the ability to achieve your objectives inside of that framework, the better your results will be.

Good stuff.