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I recently published an article on how to resolve team conflicts. While I mentioned in the article an example of resource allocation being a reason for conflict, there are other reasons that teams experience conflict. Some of them have to do with the way decisions are made. 

I’ve seen on many occasions employees who are upset not because of the decision but how the decision was made. So, I thought it might be helpful to talk about the different ways teams make decisions. By the way, I didn’t just make up this terminology. It comes from a variety of sources, I just wanted to bring it into a single list for easy reference. 

PLOP: This happens when the group is discussing something and someone says, “Here’s what we should do … and plops down a solution.” Depending on who does the plopping, it could be ignored. Or it could be immediately accepted without discussion. Either way, the solution doesn’t get the proper amount of consideration.  

KILL: This happens when someone proposes a solution, and it’s immediately rejected. I see this happen a lot during brainstorming sessions. Teams start throwing out ideas and someone starts picking them apart. Eventually, the ideas stop coming because people get tired of having their ideas killed before they are even considered. 

SELF AUTHORIZED: A self-authorized decision is one where an employee does something because no one told them “no”. This type of decision often happens when employees are unable to get answers from their team leader. They might send an email that says, “If you don’t respond by INSERT DATE / TIME, then I’ll assume you’re cool with what I’m planning to do.”

HANDCLASP: A handclasp decision happens when someone on the team makes a suggestion, and one person agrees with it … but no one else does. Depending on who that one person was who agreed, the employee proceeds. I see this happen when an employee suggests something, the team leader likes the idea … but then the team leader learns more information. Meanwhile the employee is moving forward with their suggestion. 

MINORITY: We all know this one. It’s when a small group make a decision for the larger group. An example might be when a group of managers make a decision for the entire company without consulting anyone else. Or when HR drafts a company policy without getting input from key stakeholders.  

MAJORITY: A majority decision is when 50% + 1 make a decision. Organizations make majority decisions all the time. On one hand, it usually means the majority agree with the decision. On the other hand, it might mean that 49% don’t – which is a lot of people. And who is in the majority and minority might matter. For example, let’s say the company makes a decision that the majority of employees agree with, but the entire sales team is in the minority, and they threaten to quit. That presents a problem. 

UNANIMOUS: Unanimous decisions are very rare, but they do happen. So, I don’t want to exclude them from the list. 

CONSENSUS: The last method of decision making is consensus. Building consensus is not the same as compromise. With compromise, people give up things to come to some sort of agreement. We might see compromise with minority or majority decision making. Consensus building is about working together to create a decision that everyone can live with. And that really is the key to consensus building. Everyone doesn’t have to love the idea or even like it. But everyone should be able to say that they can live with it. Otherwise, you’re really just using minority or majority decision making and calling it consensus building. 

Each of these decision-making processes have a place in team dynamics. I could see during an emergency, a plop being absolutely the right thing to do. But ultimately, groups might want to refine their ability to reach consensus. This can help groups make better decisions with everyone being involved in the process.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after speaking at the SHRM Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV
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16/03/2025 – 12:03 /Sharlyn Lauby
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