Communication In Decision Making

"I have a bone to pick with you." That's how I opened a recent conversation with an executive. Spoiler: It didn't land well. 🫠 (𝘐’𝘮 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥𝘐𝘯, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴, 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴.) I came in with a strong point of view, ready to advocate for my position. It was in opposition to a decision she made but that could still be changed. "She'll appreciate that I have conviction!" I thought confidently. But instead of sparking a productive debate, I miscalculated. The executive gently stopped me. She offered advice I'll never forget and have been thinking about days since: "Consider the context around how I made this decision." In that moment, I realized I'd skipped a crucial step: curiosity before challenge. Here's what I learned about challenging up, why my approach was all wrong, and what you can learn from my mistake. This advice is great if you're a current or aspiring #chiefofstaff but also applicable to anyone working to improve their persuasion skills. 1️⃣ 𝗟𝗲𝗮��� 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Instead of jumping in with a firm stance, start with, "I'm curious how you landed on this decision." This simple shift creates space for dialogue. It might even change your perspective before you voice your challenge. (In my case, as soon as I had more context, I changed my tune. If only I had led with curiosity...) 2️⃣ 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝘀. 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗢𝗩. Here's how I think about the difference: An informed opinion means you've thought critically but remain open to learning; a strong point of view (POV) usually means you've already decided the best course of action and are looking for buy-in. Generally, if the decision is in your domain/area of expertise, it's good to have your recommendation (POV) ready. For broader strategic decisions, almost always seek to understand first. 3️⃣ 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁. Compare "I disagree with this approach" to "Here's something I've been thinking about. Could I share my perspective?" Both convey your conviction, but one does it WAY more effectively. The former shuts down dialogue; the latter invites discussion. This experience taught me an important truth: The most effective persuaders aren't just those with strong convictions. They're the ones who master the dance between inquiry and advocacy. 💃 And even in an AI-driven world, persuading other humans will continue to be an in-demand skill. Whether you're early in your career or sitting at the executive table, understanding this balance can transform how your points are received. It might even change some strong opinions you thought you had. It did for me. (𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘈𝘐.)

I was Wrong about Influence. Early in my career, I believed influence in a decision-making meeting was the direct outcome of a strong artifact presented and the ensuing discussion. However, with more leadership experience, I have come to realize that while these are important, there is something far more important at play. Influence, for a given decision, largely happens outside of and before decision-making meetings. Here's my 3 step approach you can follow to maximize your influence: (#3 is often missed yet most important) 1. Obsess over Knowing your Audience Why: Understanding your audience in-depth allows you to tailor your communication, approach and positioning. How: ↳ Research their backgrounds, how they think, what their goals are etc. ↳ Attend other meetings where they are present to learn about their priorities, how they think and what questions they ask. Take note of the topics that energize them or cause concern. ↳ Engage with others who frequently interact with them to gain additional insights. Ask about their preferences, hot buttons, and any subtle cues that could be useful in understanding their perspective. 2. Tailor your Communication Why: This ensures that your message is not just heard but also understood and valued. How: ↳ Seek inspiration from existing artifacts and pickup queues on terminologies, context and background on the give topic. ↳ Reflect on their goals and priorities, and integrate these elements into your communication. For instance, if they prioritize efficiency, highlight how your proposal enhances productivity. ↳Ask yourself "So what?" or "Why should they care" as a litmus test for relatability of your proposal. 3. Pre-socialize for support Why: It allows you to refine your approach, address potential objections, and build a coalition of support (ahead of and during the meeting). How: ↳ Schedule informal discussions or small group meetings with key stakeholders or their team members to discuss your idea(s). A casual coffee or a brief virtual call can be effective. Lead with curiosity vs. an intent to respond. ↳ Ask targeted questions to gather feedback and gauge reactions to your ideas. Examples: What are your initial thoughts on this draft proposal? What challenges do you foresee with this approach? How does this align with our current priorities? ↳ Acknowledge, incorporate and highlight the insights from these pre-meetings into the main meeting, treating them as an integral part of the decision-making process. What would you add? PS: BONUS - Following these steps also expands your understanding of the business and your internal network - both of which make you more effective. --- Follow me, tap the (🔔) Omar Halabieh for daily Leadership and Career posts.

Why Your Version of “Common Sense” Isn’t So Common After All When you want to persuade or influence, you’re not transmitting to just one receiver - you’re addressing three: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic). Staying only on one level is like speaking a foreign language - your message simply won’t land. Business and economic theory often assume humans are rational actors, guided by logos. But real life tells a different story. Behavioral economics, cognitive biases, and everyday experience all remind us that we are far from purely rational. In fact, we may be evolutionarily ill-equipped to make consistently rational decisions. Just ask a fund manager - managing money often means managing fear, greed, and anxiety, not just numbers. The bigger the fund, the more the manager becomes a psychiatrist, holding investors’ hands through turbulent times. That’s why persuasion requires all three: Ethos builds trust. Pathos stirs action. Logos grounds it in reason. To truly move people, you must speak in a way their whole being can understand.

Silent killers do not wear name tags; one of the deadliest is poor vertical communication, executives talking past teams, and teams whispering problems that never reach decision-makers. Millions are lost not because the strategy was wrong, but because the strategy was never truly heard. Executives, mid-level managers, PMs, and delivery teams often speak different languages. This “vertical miscommunication” is a silent killer that costs organizations millions. The strategy-to-value chain breaks when information only flows one way: executives broadcasting plans without listening, or teams flagging issues that never reach decision-makers. Communication failures are politically taboo, so problems fester silently. The evidence is overwhelming: 📌 McKinsey found that 95% of employees do not understand their company’s strategy, largely due to poor communication and lack of feedback loops. 📌 Harvard Business Review reports that organizations with strong communication practices are 3.5 times more likely to outperform their peers. 📌 Gallup shows that disengaged employees—often a product of unclear direction and ignored feedback—cost companies $8.8 trillion globally in lost productivity. 📌 MIT Sloan School of Management Review highlights that “employees will not provide candid feedback if they fear retaliation.” Without psychological safety, communication breaks down and blind spots multiply. 📌 Project Management Institute’s Pulse of the Profession consistently identifies “poor communication” as one of the top drivers of project failure, eroding billions in strategic value annually. Power moves to kill the “silent killer” and hard-wire strategy ↔ value communication. Add these to your playbook: 1. Strategy Briefs & Huddles 2. Feedback Channels 3. Digital Communication Platforms 4. Structured Communication Mechanisms Leadership Rituals 5. Leadership Office Hours (Skip-Levels) 6. Decision Logs & Ownership Maps 7. Strategy-to-Ops Translation Layers 8. Narrative Memos Over Slide Decks Risk & Escalation 9. Red-Team Reviews & Pre-Mortems 10. Issue Escalation Lanes with SLAs 11. Incident Communication Playbooks Culture & Safety 12. Psychological Safety Rituals 13. Alignment Audits 14. Rumor Trackers & Quick Corrections 15. Change Champion Networks Engagement & Alignment 16. Message Maps & Toolkits 17. Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) Forums 18. Cross-Level Shadow Boards 19. Meeting Operating Systems (MOS) 20. Two-Way OKRs 🔝Share some communication fixes ideas to help others. This is Day 3 of 100 in the Strategic Project Intelligence™ Challenge—helping leaders become the catalyst who accelerates value, builds alignment to get seen, heard, and promoted. #FolaElevates #StrategicProjectIntelligence #7FigurePM #CareerAcceleration #Leadership #SPIChallenge #StrategicAlignment

One of the repeated mistakes that I have seen PMs make: Leading every conversation with data. Learning when NOT to use data to make your point is an important skill to master. Counter-intuitive but it’s true that sometimes data weakens your argument. When your stakeholder is emotional, data feels dismissive. When your audience is creative, data feels constraining. When the decision is philosophical, data feels irrelevant. You might think: More data = More persuasive But in practice: Right context = More persuasive Here's the framework I use: - Emotional decisions: Lead with empathy, support with data - Creative decisions: Lead with vision, validate with data - Political decisions: Lead with alignment, justify with data - Strategic decisions: Lead with insight, prove with data Data is your supporting evidence, not your opening statement. The most influential PMs I know are masters of this sequence: First they connect. Then they convince. Then they confirm with data. Data doesn't persuade people. Data confirms what people already want to believe. Your job is to help them want to believe the right thing first. #ProductManagement #Leadership #StakeholderManagement #ProductStrategy #CareerAdvice

Whether you’re promoting yourself in an interview, pitching a product, or asking for a raise, here’s how to persuade the person without being manipulative: At our Science of People lab, I’ve found that the most persuasive communicators master what I call the Two C’s: 1. Clarity Confusion kills persuasion. People can’t say yes to what they don’t understand. So before anything else, get crystal clear about what you do, who you help, and why it matters. 2. Curiosity Humans are drawn to questions, not monologues. If you can make someone genuinely curious, you’ve already earned their attention. Now let’s put those into practice. Step 1: Forget the elevator pitch Instead, think in terms of value propositions, statements that clearly show what you do and spark curiosity about how you do it. For example: “Meeting planners and association executives hire me to make them look like superstars.” That’s from Don Levine Jr. Every time he says it, people respond with: “Really? How do you do that?” And that “how” is the golden question, the one that opens real conversations instead of shutting them down. Step 2: Invite dialogue Your goal isn’t to “pitch.” It’s to start a discussion. When you state your value clearly, people naturally ask follow-up questions, and that’s when your expertise shines. Compare these two: • “I’m an engineer for a software company. We specialize in cybersecurity” • “I’m an engineer trying to solve the three biggest challenges in cybersecurity today” The second version invites curiosity and sets you up as an authority. Step 3: Be ready for “how” and “why” A great value proposition always leads to deeper questions: “How do you do that?” or “Why do you do that?” That’s your chance to explain your mission. Those “how” and “why” conversations create trust and credibility faster than any sales script ever could. Step 4: Add the third C (Courage) Yes, I’m sneaking in one more C. Because clarity and curiosity alone aren’t enough. You also need courage. • Courage to sound different • Courage to be memorable It takes confidence to say something like: • “I’m a human behavior hacker” • Or Jim McConnell’s favorite: “I keep my clients off the front page, keep executives alive and out of jail, and make suppliers accountable” • Or even a wedding planner who says: “Brides hire me so they can sleep better at night.” Each of those lines makes people lean in. Step 5: Create your own Here’s a simple fill-in-the-blank template to build your value proposition: I help [target audience] in [category] by [benefit/outcome] so they can [result]. Examples: • “For store owners in retail, our micro camera system provides fail-safe, worry-free security 24/7” • “I help startup entrepreneurs in tech hire the right people so they can focus on growth.” Now, I’m curious: what’s your value proposition? Fill in the blanks and share it below. I’d love to see what you come up with.

Ever noticed how one colleague always gets their ideas approved while others keep explaining but never convince? It’s not confidence. It’s psychology at play. Persuasion isn’t about talking louder or longer It’s about understanding how people think. When you are in a meeting, people don’t care about - Your background - Your last quarter’s results - Your unknown skillsets They care about - How can your ideas benefit them? - How can you make a difference to them? - Why should they listen only to you? And the best professionals use subtle psychological cues that make others say “yes” without feeling pushed. Let’s look at a few of them 1. The Foot in the door Effect We never smash a door to invade someone’s privacy. We knock and ask first. Similarly, ask for something small first. Example: “Can you review just the first slide?” and once they do, they’re far more likely to review the rest. 2. The Because Principle People love reasons. Even simple ones. Clarify why you need what you need. Example: “I’d appreciate your feedback because this deck is going to the client tomorrow” gets faster responses than “Please review.” 3. Reciprocity Rule Do something helpful first and share insights, feedback, or support. People naturally want to return the favor Example: You help a teammate polish their client pitch this week. Two weeks later, when you need quick data for your report, they go out of their way to get it done for you 4. Consistency Bias Link your request to something they already agreed to. Example: “You mentioned earlier that speed is our top priority. This process will help with that.” 5. Contrast Effect Position your idea next to a tougher alternative. Example: “If not a two-day workshop, we can start with a 2-hour micro-session.” Suddenly, the smaller option feels easy to accept. Persuasion isn’t manipulation. It’s making good ideas easier to agree with. The next time you want to convince someone, ask yourself: “Am I trying to win the point or win the person?” You will understand what needs to be done next #persuasion #softskills #personaldevelopment #corporatetraining #careergrowth #communicationskills

The CEO’s job is to hear everything, but listen to very little In high-pressure moments, advice comes at you like confetti at a wedding, and if you’re not careful, you’ll end up buried in it instead of enjoying the moment. Whether it’s a tense call with a regulator, a last-minute client negotiation, fast-moving deal, or a crisis unfolding in real time, everyone suddenly has something urgent to tell you; an opinion, a warning, a number they swear is “critical.” The problem? Information overload can be as dangerous as having no information at all. Research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found that leaders who over-consume inputs during critical decisions experience up to a 30% drop in decision quality, not because they lack intelligence, but because they fail to separate signal from noise. Here’s what I’ve learned about filtering the noise under pressure: • Set decision criteria upfront. Without pre-defined success measures, every piece of information will feel equally urgent. • Listen for alignment, not volume. In McKinsey’s studies of high-performing leadership teams, the most accurate insights often came from the quietest voices, not the loudest. • Beware of recent events bias. Kahneman and Tversky’s research on cognitive biases shows that humans overweight the most recent data, even when it’s less relevant than older, consistent patterns. The most important shift for me was this: Instead of asking “Who’s right?” I ask, “What evidence is most relevant to the decision at hand?” It’s not about ignoring people. It’s about giving weight to the few inputs that move the decision forward and protecting the team from panic-driven detours. When you’re flooded with opinions and data, how do you decide what to ignore? #Leadership #CEO #DecisionMaking #CrisisLeadership #ExecutivePresence #Management

Procurement culture becomes “audible” before it becomes “measurable”. Language defines how decisions unfold. In complex supply chain ecosystems, phrases repeated in meetings reveal how trade-offs will be handled long before contracts are signed or KPIs are reviewed. Communication is not neutral. It signals risk appetite, value orientation and how the organization interprets uncertainty. In capital-intensive and regulated environments, these signals accumulate. Over time, vocabulary influences supplier behavior, internal alignment, and decision consistency across tiers of the system. 10 phrases that consistently reflect procurement maturity: 1. “Let’s assess total cost of ownership.” 2. “Supplier collaboration strengthens value.” 3. “Contingencies are designed into the deal.” 4. “Data informs this decision.” 5. “Resilience requires preparation.” 6. “Speed operates within compliance.” 7. “Savings preserve quality.” 8. “Reputation guides sourcing.” 9. “Transparency strengthens alignment.” 10. “A contract establishes partnership.” Each phrase embeds structural assumptions. Total cost thinking shapes lifecycle viability. Collaboration language influences supplier engagement. Resilience framing prepares the organization for volatility. Data discipline reinforces governance maturity. Repeated consistently, language becomes operating architecture. In intelligent supply chain ecosystems, culture takes operational form through the language leaders use when interpreting signals and defining priorities. Procurement excellence is sustained when communication aligns strategic intent with operational behavior. Over time, that alignment determines whether systems fragment under pressure or coordinate effectively across functions. Leadership maturity often becomes audible before it becomes measurable. Which language patterns are shaping your procurement decisions today? __________ Please support research and procurement. It would be great to get your answers here: https://bit.ly/3Zt7Zdh

A lesson in my career is that the most persuasive people I know rarely argue. When we feel our beliefs are under attack, the brain often treats it like a threat. Instead of considering new information, we defend what we already believe. Psychologists call this reactance, the instinct to protect our autonomy and identity. It is one reason strong arguments can sometimes make people hold their positions even more tightly. Real persuasion tends to work differently. The most effective communicators listen carefully. They observe. And they ask thoughtful questions that help people reflect on their own assumptions. When someone arrives at an insight themselves, it does not feel like they were persuaded. It feels like they discovered something. In many ways, the path to changing minds is not arguing harder. It is creating the conditions where people feel understood enough to think again.