One of the cornerstones of a productive and harmonious team is its ability to successfully make good decisions that impact the group. More important then that, it is critical to get all members to buy into the decisions once they are made. Whether you are deciding on your next budget cuts, specific project deliverables, or when overtime will be mandated, the decision process itself is as critical as the decision.

No matter how you think your team works, deep down leaders and workers both care about the fairness of the decision making process. In order for there to be buy-in, peace and support in your team the decision process must ultimately be perceived as fair.

Fairness is obviously a matter of who is making the determination, and so there are no set rules. But over the years I have found that decisions that are perceived as fair have some common traits.

First everyone impacted by the decision must believe they have had a real opportunity to contribute to the decision. Many fights and struggles in teams start because a decision was made without one of the members playing. How many times do you hear,