Excellent post.

We often fall in the trap of re-evaluating decisions, which keeps us from executing upon it. I think the problem stems from lack of proper decision making tools and processes. Right now we exchange emails to come to a decision. However, email is where the information goes to die. The information that was used to come to decision, is lost in the threads in the Inbox. And once the decision has been made, it is transferred to PowerPoint for review by upper management. Fidelity is lost and details are left out in this translation from a threaded discussion to a PowerPoint slide.

The alternative is to use a wiki based platform, where a team can collaborate to formulate decision. But the problem with wiki, is the fluid nature of the platform. Once edits are made to a wiki page, it is almost impossible to tie the comments, thoughts, and input back to their author. Sure wikis provide a way to view the linear history edit, but how many of us go back to look at the history of a wiki page?

What we need is a enterprise 2.0 style collaborative decision making software. This platform should allow teams members to collaboratively come to a decision by capturing input from each team member, and once a decision has been reached, it should turn to a workflow for approval by upper management. Once approved, it should automatically be routed to the appropriate team for implementation. If changes are made to the decision, it should create a new workflow.

Saqib