144: Optimal Decision-Making With Timothy Yen

03/09/21 • 31 min

Many people struggle to make decisions when we have competing interests. It can be hard to navigate the needs of various stakeholders along with our own emotions and desires. Instead of getting lost in confusion, we need a step by step approach that facilitates us to think through the different dimensions and discover the solution that creates a win-win-win.

Today’s guest is Timothy Yen. Tim is a psychologist with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and emphasis in executive consultation. He is the author of "Choose Better: The Optimal Decision-Making Framework”. He practices in the San Francisco Bay area and leads conferences and retreats around the globe. Between his years in private practice and another eight years as a Mental Health Staff Sergeant in the US Army, he’s empowered hundreds of individuals, families, organizations, and teams to develop authentic relationships and grow into their best selves.

Tim and I talk about how to make optimal decisions. We get into why we make poor decisions, or worse, are indecisive, and how to apply Tim’s framework to help you and your team members make better decisions every time.

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Read the related blog article: The Four Step Process To Making Better Decisions.

KEEP UP WITH TIMOTHY

Website: www.timyen.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/choosebetterconsulting/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timothyyenpsyd

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkyen/

Key Takeaways:

An optimal decision is one that reflects your values while also meeting the needs of everyone involved.
There are four core pillars to optimal decision-making: (1) your emotions; (2) your values; (3) others’ values; and (4) reality constraints.
Pillar Number One: What emotions come up when you are making a tough decision? Reflect on both what you feel and why you are feeling this way.
Pillar Number Two: What are your values? Consider what is important to you and what outcomes you would like to see based upon these values.
Pillar Number Three: What does your team (or other stakeholders) want? Ask people about their values, desires and ideas if you’re not sure.
Team members from different cultural backgrounds come with different expectations. Ask your team where they got their values from to get to know them better and gain greater insight into what they want.
Pillar Number Four: What are the reality constraints? What factors - like your manager’s expectations or budget constraints - affect your decision?
Balance competing interests and values while staying true to yourself. Build trust by listening to your team’s ideas while accommodating your manager’s expectations.

Additional Resources:

[email protected]

Get the Optimal Decision-making Framework Checklist when you join the Modern Manager community.

Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and free mini-guides delivered to your inbox.

Read the related blog article: The Four Step Process To Making Better Decisions.

KEEP UP WITH TIMOTHY

Website: www.timyen.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/choosebetterconsulting/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timothyyenpsyd

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkyen/

Key Takeaways:

An optimal decision is one that reflects your values while also meeting the needs of everyone involved.
There are four core pillars to optimal decision-making: (1) your emotions; (2) your values; (3) others’ values; and (4) reality constraints.
Pillar Number One: What emotions come up when you are making a tough decision? Reflect on both what you feel and why you are feeling this way.
Pillar Number Two: What are your values? Consider what is important to you and what outcomes you would like to see based upon these values.
Pillar Number Three: What does your team (or other stakeholders) want? Ask people about their values, desires and ideas if you’re not sure.
Team members from different cultural backgrounds come with different expectations. Ask your team where they got their values from to get to know them better and gain greater insight into what they want.
Pillar Number Four: What are the reality constraints? What factors - like your manager’s expectations or budget constraints - affect your decision?
Balance competing interests and values while staying true to yourself. Build trust by listening to your team’s ideas while accommodating your manager’s expectations.

Additional Resources:

[email protected]

Previous Episode

143: How to Support People of Color at Work with Dr. Omolara Uwemedimo

Diversity, equity and inclusion trainings are unfortunately often aimed at helping white people understand unconscious bias, microaggressions and managing white fragility. While these are important aspects of any company’s DEI journey, it’s important to also attend to the needs and experience of people of color, who have experienced the impact of these.

Today’s guest Dr. Omolara Uwemedimo. Omolara is a physician and success strategist who works with women professionals to rediscover their purpose, prevent burnout, and achieve their vision - without resorting to struggle or sacrifice.

Omolara and I talk about her approach to providing the space and support for people of color to do their own work while us white folks do our needed work.

Omolara has provided access to the replay of her masterclass: How To Have Courageous Conversations. In it, you learn to begin building the confidence to communicate with key stakeholders, foster relationships and get what you need. To get access become a member of The Modern Manager community at themodernmanager.com/join/

Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and free mini-guides delivered to your inbox.

Read the related blog article: What Diversity Training Is Getting Wrong: 4 Ways To Help POC At Work

KEEP UP WITH OMOLARA

Website: http://www.melaninmedicinemotherhood.com/
Podcast: http://www.melaninmedicinemotherhood.com/podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaninmedicinemotherhood
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omolaramd/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/dromolara
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmEztKcqxoN-6REC4oMETqg/videos

Key Takeaways:

“Code switching” is when a person of color feels pressure to change how they naturally communicate in order to make their colleagues feel more comfortable. This causes a great psychological burden.
In a large organization, managers can create an employee resource group (an affinity group) for people to speak with people who have a shared experience about vulnerable or sensitive issues.
In a small organization, encourage employees to connect with community organizations that gather people from a shared industry, race or gender such as black women in tech.
Team diversity discussions and training often focus on discovering what white people have done wrong and improving the awareness, mindset and behavior of white people. While this is important, it’s not enough.
Create space for recovery for employees of color who live with the trauma of these issues.
POC often spend a lot of energy at work proving they are not negative stereotypes.
Set up employees of color with sponsorship and mentorship opportunities to gain support from leaders in their field who can help them feel more comfortable in showing up as themselves.
Meet one-on-one with employees of color to share strategies for success. Discuss the mission and vision of the company and how it applies to that individual’s own goals and values. Follow through with a strategy of what they can do to lead to promotions and leadership opportunities that POC don’t often get.
If you are a POC managing a mostly white team, be open about how implicit biases about your capabilities as a person of color might affect your colleagues. Demonstrate that you want a workplace with open communication and courageous conversation.

Additional Resources:

Episode 123: Addressing Race and Bias in the Workplace with Aaron Samuels

[email protected]

Next Episode

145: Communication Beyond Email, Slack and Zoom with Josh Little

Our modes of communication have grown seemingly exponentially over the past few decades. From email to texting, Slack to Zoom, we’re communicating faster than ever before. Yet, even with the combination of tools at our disposal, there are still moments when none of them are quite right.

While you might be thinking, oh no, not another communications app, consider this: We have yet to harness the power of video in asynchronous communications at work. It’s grown in popularity for social connecting so consider how it might enhance your existing communications to build relationships and move work forward.

Today’s guest is Josh Little. Josh is the founder of four tech companies–Maestro, Bloomfire, Qzzr, and Volley–that have collectively been used by hundreds of millions of people. His work has been featured in Tech Crunch, Mashable, Entrepreneur, Inc., and Forbes. With two successful exits and a third pending, he’s currently on a mission to save the working world from death-by-meetings with his fourth creation, Volley.

Josh and I talk about how to connect with your team using video messaging. We talk about how to make our communications more effective, efficient and inclusive, plus more good stuff.

Members of The Modern Manager get my guide to team communication tools. In it, I share my approach and tips for which apps are best suited to which types of communication needs. Get it when you join the Modern Manager community or purchase the guide at www.themodernmanager.com/shop.

Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and free mini-guides delivered to your inbox.

Read the related blog article: Why Email and Zoom Are Hurting Our Teams And What Else To Use

KEEP UP WITH JOSH

Website: https://www.volleyapp.com/

Key Takeaways:

Historically, asynchronous communications are written like email and text is; we read and respond at any time.
Historically, synchronous communications are meetings; we need to be present with each other at the same time to communicate.
The Volley app offers a unique opportunity for asynchronous, video communication.
The problem with communicating via text and email is that it wastes a lot of time. The average person types 19 words per minute but can speak 150 words per minute.
We lose about 93% of the communication that comes from voice, tone and body language. This often leads to miscommunications or the need for many back-and-forth messages.
In person or Zoom meetings require us to set aside chunks or our day and disrupt our ability to get into deep work.
Asynchronous communications allow people time to think before responding which can lead to greater engagement from introverts and deeper thinking overall.
Teams using Volley have experienced a strengthening in relationships and more “water-cooler” type talk.
Managers have also used Volley with individuals on their team which has enabled more natural conversations to unfold, leading to continued alignment and faster speed of work.
Different work tech apps serve different purposes. Slack is good for simple information sharing. Zoom or in-person meetings are best for emotionally charged topics, complex discussion, as well as weekly team meetings.
Introduce Volley to your team as an experiment. Try it out for one topic to get your team excited about what it has to offer instead of demanding a transition onto the platform as the new way to work.