Curating the Room: Because Better Decisions Don’t Happen by Accident
Does anyone else find themselves asking people for input on their decisions?
I’m going to guess… yes. It’s something that probably started when you were young — Should we sit at that table? Do you like this dress? — and it's likely continued into adulthood — Should I send my kid to this school? Is this dryer the one I should get?
This is why group chats exist. It’s why we text five friends before choosing a daycare. It’s why we comb through recommendations when we’re planning a trip. It’s a big part of friendship, and a totally human instinct.
But when it comes to leadership, group decision-making it needs to be a little different.
While part of great leadership is collaboration — and this includes gathering perspectives — there’s a difference between group input and group chaos.
This is why your leadership plays such a big part in effective group decision-making, and it starts by setting the tone. That means limiting the number of voices in the room, ensuring a diverse group is represented, creating space for dissent, resisting groupthink, and sharing ownership of the outcome.
So, how do you actually do that?
Le’ts break it down.
1. Keep the group small.
Just because you’re making a group decision does not mean that everyone (and their assistant) needs to be involved. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to curate a group of people intentionally — and to avoid inviting too many cooks into the kitchen. Yes, that means not every decision needs to go through 12 rounds of feedback, six stakeholders, and two brainstorming calls.
Why? Well, when you have too many voices, you’re probably going to have too many agendas. When you’re trying to actively work through decisions, this makes life really hard. Instead, keep the group small enough to stay agile while intentional enough to avoid blind spots.
2. Bring in different perspectives.
When you’re making group decisions, you need to focus on true collaboration. And at the end of the day, this means bringing in people who have different perspectives. While it’s easy to fill the room with people who look like you, think like you, or have the same background as you, this is doing everyone a disservice. Think of how much better American Eagle’s “good jeans” ad with Sydney Sweeney might have gone if the project had more diverse representation in the conference room during brainstorming sessions.
Diversity of thought and role functions are also important components of this step. Let’s say you're evaluating a new tool for your team. You’ve got feedback from engineering, but have you looped in operations, who will handle the implementation? Have you checked with legal about data compliance? Have you talked to the entry-level teammate who will use it every day?
As you work on curating the group, think through the people you want there. Who truly needs to weigh in? Who’s closest to the work? Who’s impacted by the outcome?
3. Create space for different opinions.
If you invite people to weigh in but don’t want them to challenge your ideas, you’re being a poor leader — and I know you’re better than that! Instead, make it known that disagreement is welcome. Share with your group that their own viewpoints are not only allowed but encouraged, and make it really clear that bringing a concern to the table won’t hurt someone’s standing in the group.
Better yet, make this purpose obvious. For example, during a product roadmap planning session, you might assign someone to play devil’s advocate. Or maybe, you’ll start the meeting by asking, “What’s the risk we’re not thinking about yet?”
Making space for opinions increases clarity and reduces regret.
4. Resist groupthink.
Everyone who’s ever been part of a group decision knows how easy it is to slip into groupthink. We’ve all been guilty of nodding our heads, saying “yeah, what he said,” and zoning out of major decisions.
But, as a leader, the groupthink buck starts and stops with you. To resist it, focus on asking direct questions, posing what-if scenarios, and asking for active participation. This encourages everyone to participate and discourages everyone from settling just to settle.
5. Share responsibility for the outcome.
When the decision is made, everyone in the room should walk out owning it… even if it wasn’t their first choice.
Group decision-making only works if the team moves forward together. That means clearly communicating what was decided, why it was decided, and what happens next. This means no vague takeaways. No post-meeting side conversations. No shoulder-shrugging. That shared ownership builds accountability, trust, and momentum, and ensures your team doesn’t just make decisions — but also moves on them.
Better group decisions start with better leadership.
As a leader, your job isn’t to please everyone. It’s to guide the group with clarity, and to do it in a way that invites honest input, encourages critical thinking, and gets everyone moving forward together. You don’t need a new framework here; you just need a little extra intention and ownership.
Then, you can stop spinning in circles and start aligning your team in ways that stick.
Ready to strengthen your team’s decision-making?
I work with leadership teams to build decision-making processes that are collaborative and clear, so you can lead with confidence during change… not with confusion.
Book a call to learn how I can support you and your team here
Dawn Garibaldi is a Leadership Transformation Expert, Executive Coach, and Founder of Amplify Strategy Group.
A former Fortune 50 executive with three decades of global leadership experience across five continents, she equips senior leaders to master complexity, own their presence, and build teams that are flat-out unstoppable. Through her signature coaching programs, strategies and workshops, Dawn equips executives to amplify their confidence, sharpen their edge, and lead with the kind of resilience that turns high-stakes moments into lasting impact.
Because getting back to killing it every day, no matter what gets thrown at you, is exactly what she helps leaders do.