Diana Trout, co-founder of KOMBUCHA, tells us what she doe when she has a tough decision and there is not a consensus of solutions.
FOLLOW YOUR GUT AND SHOW THE WORLD WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF. FOR HEALTH-ADE’S CO-FOUNDER DAINA TROUT, IT’S NOT JUST A PART OF THE COMPANY MISSION, IT IS THE COMPASS TROUT USES WHEN MAKING TOUGH DECISIONS FOR HER KOMBUCHA PRODUCING BUSINESS.
The tough ones are the ones where you don’t have alignment. Everybody disagrees about what the right thing to do is. It’s not clear what the right solution is.
In those decisions knowing what to do, where to go, what to hold onto, what to not hold onto is a very personal decision. The way I approach that, I try to be very pragmatic because it can be very easy to get paralyzed.
I think a good approach in those situations is to first identify you’re in that situation. You say, ok here I am. I’ve been here before. This is one of those tough decisions.
LOOKING FOR THAT PERFECT SOLUTION MAY NOT BE PRODUCTIVE. TROUT SAYS SHE SEEKS THE OPINION OF SEVERAL PEOPLE SHE RESPECTS AROUND THE ROOM AND ASKS FOR THE CONTEXT OF THEIR OPINIONS. A LACK OF CONSENSUS ABOUT WHAT TO DO, OR WHERE TO GO, IS LICENSE TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE.
You gain some sort of comfort knowing that there is no right answer. It’s not like oh, if you just tried one more person they’d give it to you. No, no, no, there is no right answer. As you can see all these very respectable people around the table disagree. It kind of gives you the empowerment to recognize ok, this is one of these decisions that with my paint brush and my canvas I get to paint this.
Draw a line in the sand. I am going to make this decision by x date. And then you just look at all of the information you have and you really have to tap into your intuition and your gut once you know all that info.
THE BUSINESS REVIEW IS A PRODUCTION OF LIVINGSTON & MCKAY AND THE HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY.
