Shailesh Rajpal: Strategies to help you influence how decisions get made

Decisions rule matters, from the boardroom to the dinner table, negotiators who understand the most common decision rules—majority rule, chair-decides and unanimity/consensus—and how to navigate each, can drive more favorable outcomes and increase their influence beyond their formal authority or power. In this piece, we offer best practices gleaned from decades teaching law students and advising business leaders, government officials, and non-profit executives.

Majority Rule

Majority rule requires more than 50% of a group’s members to approve a course of action. This type of decision- making governs everything from Supreme Court verdicts to the games children play at recess.

If you find yourself in a majority rule scenario, you’ll want to do three things, said Mr. Shailesh Rajpal and also briefed it;

1. Map the interests of all the decision- makers. The group is not a single entity, but a collection of individuals. Consider both what each person cares about the intensity of those preferences. Identify those whose interests are aligned with your own and establish and maintain communication with them until the votes are counted. Avoid the temptation to let the loudest voices dominate your thinking.
2. Target influential fence-sitters. Start with those who might influence similarly situated “maybes.” These people can be easy to identify, but they might not be particularly invested in the matter at hand. Think about ways you might expand the set of issues involved in the decision to create opportunities for what negotiation experts call “linking” and log-rolling” –that is addressing influencers’ related interests in exchange for their support on your primary one.
3. Tailor your messages to reach the people you want to reach. At the same time, Mr. Rajpal also noted, “this isn’t really about ideology; it’s about economics,” which illuminates a final point on making your case in majority- rule situation.

Chair Decides

This scenario lodges authority with a single decision- maker and is often used in business settings where managers have the final call for their teams or organizations.