A Simple Decision Framework: Debate, Decide and Unite

Across the 17 years of HubSpot, one of the most challenging projects I’ve worked on— and the most valuable, involved writing code of a different kind. It was the HubSpot Culture Code a slide deck we shared with the world a decade ago (in 2013) that describes our culture.

The deck is 128 slides long. But despite that, it’s been viewed over 6 million times.

But, this post is not about the culture code deck — it’s about a new, related project I’m working on called the “ HubSpot Guiding Principles”. My goal here is to create a simple framework and set of principles that help the 7,000+ people on the team run HubSpot better.

Just like the Culture Code, I’m not really the creator of it, I’m more the scribe. The actual principles themselves come from having spent a lot of time with folks from all over the organization.

The full Guiding Principles aren’t published yet (still a work in progress), but I posted a tweet that got some attention, so I thought I’d write a post about it.

So, this is the first in a series of posts where I’ll dig into the Guiding Principles (which are not currently published, so you’re getting a sneak peek).

Step 1: Debate

As your company grows, you’ll find that the decisions you have to make get harder.

This is partly because the easy decisions have already been made. If something were “obvious” for which there is a clear path, there often doesn’t need to be a discussion.

The reason some decisions linger is because they’re harder. And they’re harder because there are some tough tradeoffs.

This is why we think open debate is so important.

Debate helps surface what the tradeoffs are. This is different from simply presenting the options or even the preferred option (based on some analysis). When you have smart, caring people debate an issue — particularly one they feel strongly about, you don’t get the strawman arguments. You get the steelman arguments.

Step 2: Decide

Once you have had the debate, surfaced the issues, it is time to decide.

At HubSpot, we don’t decide things by vote. We make sure everyone has a voice — but we don’t give everyone a “vote”. We don’t make decisions by committee.

A person makes the decision.

We choose that person upfront as go into the “Debate, Decide and Unite” process. Often, that person is not necessarily the person with the biggest title — it’s someone that is close to the issue and has both the context and the competency to evaluate the options, listen to the debate and ultimately make the right decision for the organization.

Step 3: Unite

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when it comes to decision-making is not they don’t make good decisions. It’s that they don’t align behind those decisions.

There’s doubt.

There’s second-guessing.

There’s lackluster support from those that disagreed.

That’s a big problem. Because regardless of how good the decision is, if you can’t put all your energy behind that decision, you’re not making the most of it.

Hat tip to Amazon for their “Disagree and Commit” principle from their Leadership Principles. Here’s what they write:

I think they’re spot on in terms of pushing their leaders to challenge decisions when they disagree. But, I find their phrasing around committing a bit aggressive — which is fine for them, that’s their culture. It’s just not HubSpot culture.

The point still stands. Alignment is key.

Do, make sure there is truly open debate, weigh the tradeoffs, have one person decide and then unite behind that decision.

But…when is it OK to revisit a decision?

I’m not a fan of second-guessing, but nothing is forever, and there are times when the right thing to do is revisit a decision you’ve already made.

Here are the circumstances under which this is OK:

1. Meaningful new data is now available that just wasn’t available before. We know more now than we did then and that knowledge could impact what we’d choose.

2. We grossly underestimated the costs or tradeoffs of the decision. Sometimes, you don’t know what the consequences of a decision will be until after you make it and try to sail the ship. (It’s the same phenomenon that causes you to find a mistake in that email about 17 seconds after it’s been sent).

3. Sufficient time has passed and things have changed. That decision was great for its time, but it’s a new world.

4. The founders are deeply troubled with the decision and are losing sleep at night and just need to revisit this one last time… (I’m partly joking here, with an emphasis on the “partly”).

All joking aside, you have to be careful that you aren’t too cavalier about coming up with excuses to re-litigate decisions.

There will always be a group of people that were arguing for a different path.

There’s always new data that will come out.

The world is always going to change.

You have to build the discipline to truly only revisit when the stakes are high.

Sometimes, even if you recognize that a decision may not have been the perfect one, it’s usually the best thing to do is just push through.