Take a Decision Pause

USE THIS IN ORDER TO…

• Reduce contrived urgency in decision-making.

• Develop more distributed leadership and shared decision-making.

KEY COMPONENTS

1. All stakeholders need to be invited to meetings and must be given equal time to talk. Leadership may need to deliberately hold back from speaking first so that team members feel they can speak freely.

2. Create shared norms for the conversation.

3. Ask team members to play devil’s advocate – putting forward the most compelling arguments they can come up with both for and against an idea.

4. Once the group has made a decision about which direction will be taken, honor that decision.

5. Schedule a follow-up meeting if a decision cannot be reached to reduce urgency.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR REMOTE IMPLEMENTATION

1. In a semi-remote environment, where some participants are together in a physical space and some are remote, create a consistent way for all participants to join a meeting via their laptop using a video meeting platform.

2. Use collaborative documents for participants to share ideas. This can be done before, during, or after meetings, and this approach helps ensure that everyone’s voice gets included.

ARTIFACTS & RESOURCES

• Equity Meets Design's Organization-Wide Equity Pause

• Beloved's Equity Audit

• Stanford d.school's Critical Lens Protocol

• Race Forward's Racial Equity Impact Assessment

• Moving Beyond the Statement: Implementing Anti-racist/DEI Systemic Change

• Inclusive & Equitable Planning Process

• White Supremacy Culture