Leaders engage people before the decision, explain the reasoning once it is made, and spell out what is expected next, so even those who lost the argument accept the outcome and act on it.
An example
A regional airline had to consolidate heavy maintenance from three bases into one, and mechanics at the two bases that would close expected the worst. For two months before the decision, the vice president of maintenance visited each base, asked crews what they knew about the work, the hangars, and the costs, and took their numbers into the analysis. One crew's estimate of tooling transfer costs changed the timeline. When the decision came, she went back to each base and explained it in person: why the central base won, what the figures were, what the crews' input had changed. Every mechanic got a letter saying which roles would move, the relocation terms, the dates, and what would happen to those who stayed. Grievances were filed at one base and withdrawn within a month, and the consolidation finished on schedule.
Why it works
People accept outcomes they dislike when they believe the process was fair: they were asked, their input could change the result, the reasoning was explained, and they know what happens next. Fair process makes the decision easier to carry out, because those who lost the argument cooperate instead of resisting, and it does this without changing the decision. The engagement has to be real, with input able to change the outcome, the explanation honest, and the expectations afterward clear. Consultation after the decision is already made, or explanation that hides the real reasons, breeds more resentment than none at all.
The thinking behind it
W. Chan Kim In Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy (1997), Kim and Mauborgne argue that people will commit to a decision, even one they disagree with, if they believe the process that produced it was fair. The mechanics who lost their base had been asked for their numbers and saw those numbers change the timeline, so the decision could be one they disliked and still carried out.
Renée Mauborgne Kim and Mauborgne name three elements of fair process in their article: engagement, asking for input and letting people challenge ideas; explanation, making clear why the final decision was made; and expectation clarity, stating the new rules once the decision is set. The base visits, the return to explain, and the letter to each mechanic map onto those three in order, and dropping any one weakens the result.
When it fits
Decisions that will hurt some people and need their cooperation to carry out call for it: consolidations, closures, restructurings, changes in how work is done. Leaders must be willing to spend time with the affected people before deciding and able to let their input change the plan. Where nothing can be influenced, saying so honestly is the fair course.
How to use it well
Engage people before the decision. Ask for their knowledge and views, and make sure their input can change the plan.
- Explain the decision in person, with the reasons and the figures, and say what the input changed.
- Set out expectations: what happens to whom, when, and on what terms.
- Answer questions honestly, including the hard ones.
- Follow through on what you said would happen.
If some parts of the decision cannot be influenced, say so at the start. Fair process asks that people be heard, told why, and told what comes next. It makes no promise that they will like the outcome, and pretending otherwise undoes it.
What it costs and where it backfires
Engagement takes time and slows the decision. Input that changes the plan can cost you parts of the original proposal, and explaining the reasoning exposes it to criticism. The method fails if the engagement is a formality: consulting people after the decision has been made, or asking for input that cannot change anything, is a deaf ear dressed as listening, and people see through it fast.
When it is used on you
Give your input specifically and in writing when leaders ask for it before a decision, with numbers if you have them. Ask how the input will be used and when you will hear the decision. If the consultation turns out to have been a formality, say so to the decision-maker directly.