If I am fortunate enough to have you as one of my coaching clients, you’re familiar with the story of the cheese selection discussion as it relates to decision making. The cheese incident took place 35 years ago during my tenure as the VP of Learning and Development at a regional bank. It’s been all those years but I remember it like it was yesterday since I failed my employee at the meeting because I didn’t know how to redirect a discussion.

In my role as a manager, I oversaw a five-person team comprising a sales trainer, a teller trainer, a customer service trainer, a curriculum designer, and an event coordinator. Annually, our division hosted a sales recognition event to honor the top-performing individuals in each branch.

While the event itself lasted only half a day, its planning and coordination consumed a substantial amount of time, particularly for our dedicated event coordinator, Allison. She was an employee with exceptional performance standards. She was delightful to manage, since she not only understood her responsibilities, but also paid meticulous attention to detail.

A week before the event, we convened with the most senior leaders of the bank to review the agenda and ensure that each of them was well-prepared for their roles in recognizing the attendees.

What we were unaware of, however, was that the four senior leaders in our meeting had just come from a session with the bank president. During that meeting, they had been informed about a recent growth shortfall and had been advised to cut costs and reduce spending throughout the organization.

During our preparation meeting, one of the leaders unexpectedly asked Allison to provide the menu for the event. Always prepared, Allison promptly produced the menu, which had been thoughtfully selected and meticulously vetted with vendors to control costs. Surprisingly, the conversation among these leaders then shifted to a discussion about the prices of various cheeses, a conversation that continued for over 45 minutes.

Though I hadn’t yet completed my master’s degree in organizational development and wasn’t formally familiar with group decision-making dynamics or the concept of the recency effect, what I did know was that Allison’s diligent work and extensive cost comparisons over the past two months were being disregarded and questioned. It became evident to me that no matter how you sliced it (pun intended), this discussion would not lead to a significant reduction in expenses.

As I mentally calculated the hourly salaries of these leaders, I realized that it far exceeded the price of the cheese board being discussed. At that point in my career, I recognized the issue at hand, yet felt powerless to intervene.

This experience raises a pertinent question: What is the true cost to an organization when senior leaders become intricately involved in decisions that should rightfully be made at a lower level? Does this happen in your organization?