Decision-Making Filters

Many of us who run businesses are often faced with business decisions that can also affect our personal lives.

This can be true of any business, but recently I’ve seen it taking up significant mental space for highly-climate-aware business leaders.

We’re not only considering the outcomes of our decisions day-to-day or quarter-to-quarter, we’re also contemplating the longer future impacts of our decisions. As in, we often think as far as 2040 or even 2050, since they’ve been bedded into our thought process.

Things like:

• Can supporting this corporation actually make things worse?
• Will my kids question my decision here?
• How long can I ignore this for?

While those are very vague and abstract questions, where I see them come up is on the verge of a not-so-small decision.

Something like switching away from a long-time supplier, taking on a questionable client, relocating, kicking off a new product line, following the advice of a consultant, or changing direction entirely.

Decisions that might contribute to the legacy that the organisation – or the leader themselves – leaves behind.

One way that climate-aware business leaders can process these decisions is by putting them through decision filters.

Marketing teams have various names for these filters: Values; Mission Statements; Vision Statements; Purpose Statements; Your “Why”.

And a lot of companies have these but rarely use them as filters because, through no fault of their own or the agency that helped create them, they haven’t been created with that intention.

When your filters work, it makes not-so-small (ie: big) decisions much easier.

On Friday November 25th at 3pm, I’m running a free workshop that walks through how and why we create these marketing assets, and how you can use them for highly effective decision-making.

Fill out this form and come along. If you know someone who might also be interested, feel free to forward them this email (they wont be added to this daily email list without opting-in).

If the reason for having things like vision statements or the other stuff has never been entirely clear, this workshop is for you. If you’ve ever rolled your eyes at a mission statement, this workshop is definitely for you.