Formal presentations are rarely the final step in a German decision making process. Rarely do German managers make a critical decision shortly after having listened to the presentation of various options.
Instead they will take time to reflect, discuss with their direct reports, get additional input from subject area experts, use colleagues at different management levels as sounding boards.
The act of persuasion in the German business context is seldom aimed at getting a specific decision. Truly persuasive argumentation seeks to influence, steer, route the thinking to or in the direction of a desired decision.
Hastig: hasty, impatient: To act rashly without having considered the consequences; unsettled, jumpy, nervous.
Eile mit Weile translates roughly “take your time when moving quickly”. The Germans believe that good work can be completed sooner by taking your time, working thoroughly, avoiding mistakes whose correction will require more time. ‘Eile mit Weile’ is for the Germans not a contradiction in terms but a proven approach.
Another common figure of speech in German is ‘mit dem Kopf durch die Wand’, literally to try to go through the wall with your head. It signals a lack of sophistication, of imagination, of the ability to navigate around barriers. Those who attempt ‘mit dem Kopf durch die Wand’ are seen as stubborn, unreflective, rough, intellectually lazy. These are not compliments in the German culture.
Geduld: patience; to bear, to carry; calm and self-controlled acceptance of something which is uncomfortable or could take a long time. Geduld – patience – is required especially in professions whose results come at a much later time. Geduld is also required when work involves much trial and error.
Vorbereiten: to prepare: to orient oneself to something; to make oneself capable; to complete necessary work ahead of time, in anticipation of; to prepare or develop oneself.
Germans plan. They place great value on preparation. ‘Was man im Kopf nicht hat, muss man in den Füssen haben’ translates roughly as “What one doesn‘t have in their head, they need to have in their feet”, meaning those who are unprepared have to hustle here and there in order to complete their tasks.
Being unprepared slows down the work of the other colleagues, threatens the execution of the overall plan, forces a rescheduling of work results. Germans feel very uncomfortable when a plan is poorly executed.
Before a German begins a specific task the tools have been laid out, the job description and requirements have been thoroughly read, all the necessary pieces have been assembled, the work plan is pinned on the wall above the workbench, so to speak. The work is then completed in a timely fashion and with an eye on quality.
This is the approach of a master artisan in his shop, of a German Hausfrau in the kitchen, of a German professor at the university. Rarely does that professor need to scurry back to his office in order to get a certain book or paper. Disorganization is a sign of being unzuverläßig, unreliable. What was he thinking that he forgot the book? Is he really serious about his work? How reliable is someone who doesn’t prepare their work?
Germans are process oriented. They think through how a task is best completed. Germans set up work processes which are logical, structured, can be monitored and optimized. Since there is no action without first a decision to act, Germans focus on how decisions are made.
The more complex the decision, the more carefully Germans consider how they make it. Who will be affected by the decision? Who has the final say about the decision? Who has what rights and responsibilities? Germans believe that routine, yet complex, decisions are best made with the help of a decision-making process. And the better the process, the better the decisions made.
The Germans are methodical. In order to maintain Überblick (overview) and Durchblick (throughview) they distinguish carefully between specific steps and their individual requirements within a decision making process. Germans believe that a methodical approach minimizes mistakes.
They also assign a generous time frame to an important decision. In order to move carefully through the process they allow for the repetition of certain steps. Germans believe in moving to the next step in a process only after the preceding step has been completed properly. Patience and thoroughness are critical.
A methodical approach means a well-structured process with sequential action. The clearer the process, the tighter and more logical the sequence of the individual steps, the better coordinated all of the related activities.
Method. Latin methodus, Greek méthodos: The path of analysis, the route to somewhere; a set way to reach insight; a specific way of doing something; the path to a specific goal; based on a plan; well thought through.
German education stresses methodology. University students receive their degrees after demonstrating in a thesis that they have mastered the methodologies current in their field of study. The first part of a thesis goes into great detail about the specific methodology of analysis applied to the subject.
Sequence. Latin sequentia: order of things; to place similar things in line; repetition of a musical motif; shorter pieces of a movie put in a specific order; series of cards in a row.
All processes have a rhythm, made up of the individual process steps, their sequence and the time allotted to them. Processes do not exist in a vacuum, however. Every process and its rhythm is subject to external factors.
Germans do their best to prevent external factors from influencing the rhythm of their processes, however. They believe that if a given decision making process has proven to be effective, if it has led to good decisions, it should not be interrupted or distracted.
If the decision is an important one, if the decision making process has proven to be robust, Germans will do their best to shield it from external factors.
It is a well known fact that the German and the American legal systems have fundamental differences between them. The modern German legal system is based on ancient Roman law, combined with a bit of French and old Germanic law, but all of it follows the paragraph law structure.
The American system is derived from the English case law tradition, which follows the law as it was laid out by judicial verdicts in actual previous cases. Key cases providing precedence are reviewed to determine how to continue.
Justice (Gerechtigkeit) and judgement are closely connected in the American system. Not just the concrete facts of the case, but also the circumstances are considered to be crucial information for the deliberations and verdict. These then must be interpreted with regard to the complex nature of the human existence.
A task which only persons with sufficient experience with life as well as with people are capable of. This experience – or the wisdom that comes from such experience – is something which only older people can have.
This is why Americans are always astounded when they hear that in Germany relatively young people – in their early 30s – can become judges. Many of the district attorneys that they see on German television look as if they were fresh out of law school.
According to the American understanding of judicial power, paragraph laws play a minor part. Case law is so difficult precisely because it concerns situations which are not found in a German book of federal law.
This is why American judges must be older people who are truly good and wise. Their process too involves stringent scientific methods of analysis, not unlike German paragraph laws. These, from the American perspective, can not deliver more than just the pure facts.
The ability to take these facts and interpret them, to make sense of them, this is what they view as true good judgement. Knowledge of methodology and analytical processes may support one’s good judgement, but can never amount to the equivalent.
In his blogpost Stoicism & Star Trek: Think like Spock – Act like Kirk Jen Farren at the University of Exeter writes:
„Gene Roddenberry (creator of Startrek) says that he deliberately: ‘Took the perfect person and divided him into three, the administrative courageous part in the Captain (Kirk), the logical part in the Science Officer (Spock) and the humanist part in the Doctor (McCoy).’“
Farren then quotes Stephen Fry: „You have the Captain in the middle, who is trying to balance both his humanity and his reason. And on his left shoulder, you have the appetitive, physical Dr. McCoy. And on his right shoulder you have Spock, who is all reason. And they are both flawed, because they don’t balance the two, and they’re at war with each other, McCoy is always having a go at Spock. And Kirk is in the middle, representing the perfect solution.“
Kirk tries to balance emotion and reason, but he never loses sight of taking action. His choices and actions make him take risks for the common welfare, even when the purely logical thing might be to do nothing. In the words of Captain Kirk himself: ‘Gentlemen, we’re debating in a vacuum. Let’s go get some answers.“
According to a report in the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes by researchers from Boston College, George Mason University and Rice University: Intuition may be just as effective in decision-making as an analytical approach. And sometimes more efficient and effective, depending on the decision-maker’s level of expertise on the subject at hand.
“What we found demystifies a lot of the information out there that says intuition isn’t as effective as if you sat down and walked through an analytical approach.”
Testing intuition against analysis, the study found that people can trust their gut and rely on intuition when making a broad evaluation in an area where they have in-depth knowledge of the subject. As people move up in organizations, they’re often required to make judgments that may not be readily solved by rational analysis.
Intuition has long been viewed as a less effective approach to critical reasoning when compared to the merits of analytical thinking. Yet as society and businesses place a greater emphasis on the speed and effectiveness of decision-making, the intuitive approach has been identified as an increasingly important tool.
Analytic decisions are great for breaking things down into smaller parts, which is necessary for a math problem. But intuition is about looking at patterns and wholes.
There are several key phrases that Americans use when making quick, suboptimal decisions. Some of these include:
At the drop of a hat – without any hesitation, instantly; with the slightest provocation.
Back to the drawing board – when a decision fails and a new one needs to be made. First known use: 1941 in a cartoon in the New Yorker magazine.
Back to square one – when a decisions fails so completely that you have to go back to the beginning and start over.
Cross that bridge when you come to it – deal with a problem when it arises, not before. First known use: 1851 in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Golden Legend.
If worse comes to worst . . . – if the worst possible outcome of the bad decision occurs, the person saying it will do whatever he/she says next. First known use: 1596. Example: We’ll put this to market now, and if worse comes to worst we’ll refund our customers’ money.
Rash decision – a decision made without considering all of the details.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Faust. In Faust, the protagonist’s journey is marked by deep introspection and a long process of weighing choices and consequences. Goethe’s narrative emphasizes the importance of reflection and patience before making life-altering decisions, warning against impulsive actions and highlighting the value of allowing time for understanding and wisdom to develop.
Hermann Hesse – Siddhartha. The novel follows Siddhartha’s lifelong quest for enlightenment, during which he repeatedly pauses, reflects, and allows time to shape his decisions. Hesse’s narrative suggests that true wisdom and the right decisions come only with patience and the willingness to let things unfold naturally.