Businesses Must Ensure Clarity In Decisions Across Levels.

It is been pragmatic in organizations, that a good number of the decision making process is done behind the bunged doors of the Board rooms..But its execution has to be done out of that space as well. This is done by issuing Orders, Memos, Notifications, Information, Circulars, Rules, policies or whatever names they may possess.

Although there may not be much of a hierarchy in a startup, most of the startups fail to contain their human resources for more than a year or so. Improper coordination & flow of order from top to the levels below may be one of the key causes for turnover ratio being poignant.

Its just as in a school, if the instructions given to the students are improper, there are utmost chances of the student being disobedient. Here in a startup, which is no different than a pre-school or a primary school, the founders or the CEO has to assure that his dreams are being understood in a lucid manner so as to realize it in the way desired. Else misinterpretation of orders may result an off beam message may cause a mayhem to a startup.

This may also help to analyze who is in slip, as if the orders are not clear to the employees, it’s the fault of the top level management but if the orders are clear and precise, its the employee who is at error. Hence evaluation of work can accordingly be done.

A written order is much more preferred than a verbal one, if they are targeted to large number of people, say a department. If a single employee or a team of department has to be addressed, an email may be preferred. Verbal orders may result in misunderstandings in some cases, hence are to be avoided, unless situation calls for. However it depends sometimes on the intensity of the decision that has been taken or the urgency.

Also the order has to be reviewed, revised and/ or updated, if needed at intervals. This is because there may be some alteration within the team or a department or an organization, due to which, revision of order may be the need of the hour. Say the work timings may change, or say the technology which is used is modified; accordingly the order has to be reviewed.

Again this Mantra may vary from startup to startup. It may not be applicable to each and every startup. Also it depends on what the Founders or CEO or the Entrepreneur best things to be done at his end. Some startups are among the best friends, within families or best colleagues, whereby orders may not be a proper way of communicating policies and decisions.

All said and done, where orders or issued, it is the responsibility of the Founder to assure its proper flow to his teammates. This is because, the team expects this directly or indirectly from the founder / CEO of the startup of which they are a part of.