Break indecision

In Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of the Team, Patrick Lencioni says:

“Great teams embrace disagreement and actually enjoy moments of temporary indecision and healthy disagreement. They take pleasure in making and rallying around and buying into decisions when the right answer seems nowhere to be found.”

The key to making this happen has to do with encouraging conflict and then being the decider.

When people have no reservations about disagreeing with one another and airing every available option and perspective, they will have the confidence to embrace a decision and abandon whatever their initial opinion might have been.

Drive commitment by first extracting every possible idea, opinion, and perspective from the team. Then, comfortable that nothing has been left off the table, step up and make a decision.

The amazing thing about this is that 19½ times out of 20, everyone sitting around that table will leave the room actively committed to implementing your solution, even when that decision does not mesh with their own recommendation.

How can this be possible? Most people don't really need to have their ideas adopted (a.k.a. “get their way”) to buy into a decision. They just want to have their ideas heard, understood, considered, and explained in the context of the ultimate decision.