Soliciting group feedback, part 1

If you face a big decision and want the best advice, perspective, and ideas from your team, here’s a process to get honest, open feedback, even from reluctant teams. Today’s post is about preparation and tomorrow’s will discuss facilitating an honest-conversation meeting.

The Challenges

Even in private, people are reluctant to tell leaders what they really think, for a huge range of reasons, including power imbalances, fear, and embarrassment. Most people are reluctant to tell those with power over their paychecks what you really need to hear.

How many meandering meetings have you sat through, where the boss simply wanted to “get everyone together to discuss something.” People end up checking email, or texting each other under the table, and often leave feeling they wasted their time, while the leader who called the meeting because s/he wanted help with a problem, may end up with more ideas, but no insight into the right decision.

Many leaders are also unaware that when they simply ask a group, “I want to hear what you think,” they inadvertently cause people to presume there’s a right answer and they spend their time trying to figure out what the leader wants to hear. A leader’s job is to get it right, not to be right.

This process is a combination of methods from Amazon, the well-known Crucial Conversations, Susan Scott’s Fierce Conversations, and best practices for decision-making. I have used this process many times with great success.

Me, prepare?

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
-Abraham Lincoln

The mistake made by leaders who just “get everyone together to discuss” a topic is that they haven’t done the work required to get clear, actionable advice from a group in a way that both focuses people’s attention and makes them feel free to speak their minds about what’s really going on.

The work done prior to the meeting determines the quality of the meeting’s output, which is why Amazon requires employees who call a large meeting to take the time upfront to cogently write out the issue, often in very long letters.

We will be taking a similar tactic, which may create more work up front, but can lead to dramatically more insightful, complete, and helpful information needed to make big decisions with more confidence.

Who decides, and how?

The first step is to clarify, up front, how the decision will be made.

It astonishes me how many times leaders, and therefore their teams, don’t have a clear sense of this during a discussion, causing endless circular conversation.

This step alone can clarify your thinking, answer part of the “why are we here” question, and reduce status transactions during discussions.

According to the seminal book Crucial Conversations, there are four ways to make a decision:

• Command – Decide without involvement or input from others.

• Consult – Invite others to provide input, then you decide.

• Vote – Discuss options and then call for a vote.

• Consensus – Discuss the issue until everyone agrees to one course of action.

Each method has its uses and strengths, but from my experience with facilitating feedback meetings, option two (Consult) most often results in the best decision with the most efficient use of resources.

If you’re unsure which to choose, this post has a good summary of the pros and cons of each method in various scenarios.

So, what’s the problem?

Author and consultant Susan Scott says, “A problem named is a problem solved.”

In a “let’s just get together to discuss” meeting, much of the time is spent simply attempting to help the group clarify an issue. It’s like only drinking the froth of a cappuccino and never getting to the coffee. Where’s the caffeine? The best ideas are below the fluff, deep inside the smart people you have around you.

Scott provides the following Issue Preparation Template (somewhat adapted here) to help you clarify the problem for your team, so they can bring their creativity and perspectives to the meeting. Answer each of these questions in writing.

The issue is...

Briefly, what is the heart of the problem? Is it a challenge, opportunity, decision, strategy, or a recurring issue that needs to be fixed?

It is significant because...

What’s at stake? Income, expenses, people, products, service, customers, or something else? What is the future impact if this issue is not resolved?

My/Our ideal outcome is...

What specific results do I/we want? If I/we get this right, who or what will be affected, and how? What good things will occur?

Relevant background information...

Use bullet points to summarize how, when, why, and where the issue started, who the key players are, what forces are at work, and the issue’s current status.

What I/we have done up to this point...

What successful and unsuccessful steps have been taken so far, with what results?

The option I am considering...

What option(s) am I/are we considering? If I had to choose right now, without input from the group, what option would I choose and why?

How the decision will be made...

Describe the decision-making process (discussed above).

The help I want from the group Is...

Explain clearly what you want from the group. What does success from this meeting look like? Do you want to know what you’re missing; to see what they see; alternative solutions, consequences, or sources of information you may have missed; or an honest critique of a current plan?

When you have clearly articulated this for your team, you elevate their jumping-off point, making the quality of their insights, advice, and feedback much more informed and helpful to your decision.

Tomorrow’s Daily Tip will discuss how to select participants, set expectations in the meeting invite, and facilitate the meeting.