Decisions in organizations occur at many levels, from the CEO's office to the person closest to serving the customer. Over the past few years, there is an increasing portion of decision-making that takes place closer to the customer being served by the organization. Many times decisions at the customer-level require the cooperation and consensus of a group. Groups at this level of making decisions help to ensure that decisions are made in the most practical and customer-focused way possible. According to Darlene M. Van Tiem, when employees are empowered to improve their work environment, they "aim for the best they can be and seek the best workplace they can have." In my experience, working with a variety of organizations, groups that are empowered to make decisions sometimes need the structure of a decision making tool (DMT) to be most effective.