Any advice for getting clear feedback and diverse perspectives in decision making? How do you ensure that individuals are truly sharing their own perspective and not just going with the crowd?
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Chief Information and Technology Officer10 months ago
We use a cross team workshop approach. We’ve created a model that’s quite successful with creating inclusion so people feel heard and included. Director of IT10 months ago
This challenge is famous even in the psychology literature, since Freud wrote about it in the beginning of the 20th century. There are a lot of HBR, Northwestern and Kellogg articles on the same subject (skewed group taking decision process). However, it is not only about Leadership as we know it today, a lot of it boils down to the expression of power of sr. managers in higher level positions, their biases, egos, and personal insecurities. It is unfortunate that managers in general have a hard time recognizing new innovative ideas, and as a consecuence their teams sometimes are reluctant to present and discuss them openly. If you add the company culture to the story it can get even worse. So how do you go about it? It's very difficult and there is no silver bullet. What worked for me a couple of times is to divide the larger team in multiple groups and have them discuss the problem behind closed doors. That way you can isolate the person (or two) that breaks open discussion and the brainstorming process. Basically upfront you accept that one group will bring nothing new to the table, at the same time opening space for discussion in other groups, and count on the fact that people need to feel relevant and expect new things to surface.
Thanks.
VP of Engineering10 months ago
A couple of practical tips I use with my teams - one is to do smaller focus groups (sometimes without a leader there) and gather feedback or the other one is to do post-it note feedback on different topics. We do the post-it note feedback sessions in person or virtually (using a tool like Mural) so allow people to write their thoughts on notes without seeing other people's feedback first.CIO in Healthcare and Biotech10 months ago
I think a key part of getting feedback is giving people time to study, process, organize and distill thoughts, and then express them. This can come in many different ways. However, one key thing is time. You must give time. I find that if I come into a meeting, for example, after spending a few days/weeks/months thinking about a decision that needs to be made, and then expect everyone in the room to have coherent thoughts, I will be disappointed. Good decisions often take time, and we get stuck in the falsehood of rushed decisions. Send the problem you are looking to solve well in advance to those you are soliciting feedback and perspective from. Ask them to come prepared to share their thoughts. Work to understand how they each share feedback. You may need to work harder to have 1 on 1's with some rather than in a group setting. You may need to allow people time to write out what they think. However, if you create an environment where others have time to study, process, organize, and distill their thoughts, then when you ask them to express that thinking you will receive the feedback you're looking for. Lastly, if you are the leader asking for the thoughts of your team/direct reports, I would suggest never offering your idea first. It's the fastest way to shut down other's ideas and to move toward group think. They don't want to run counter to their boss. Head of Transformation in Government10 months ago
That's a big bag of a question. And a lot of the answer depends on what type of decision making is important and works in your organisation. Some decision making (my favourite) is by the numbers. No feedback needed in its rawest forms. The numbers say turn left, we turn left, and all are loyal to the decision because the culture supports this form. In other organisations the decision is not about right or wrong, but about how the decision is taken and how involvement of views is secured. In those organisations, failure is accepted if engagement is high. Or even, because I show my bias by that phrase, the concept of success and failure is measured differently.In either case, you are looking for clear feedback and diversity of opinion. I actually like to cultivate "the minority report" (as taken from the famous Hollywood film). I deliberately ask or encourage someone to take on the contrarian view (red hat/black hatting).
Which brings me to recommendation one: use techniques, even very simplified, from de bono's six hat thinking (google it). Work on exploring different perspectives by aligning everyone to the same hat - or assigning the hats for a multi-faceted view. This has worked for me when it is important to explore all angles of a decision.
The other aspect is one that @BJ Vander Linden touched on, that refers to different thinking styles which are an important aspect of diversity. Some people need time, some people need to express themselves immediately. Some people work with numbers, some with emotions. Try and build a management team (in the broadest sense of the meaning) that allows, systematically, for different mental modes and styles. It takes time but it can encourage diversity and feedback. For example, distribute the factbase to the decision and the decision proposal(s) well in advance. Give people multiple channels for feedback (written, oral, inline, or summary), establish two or more presentation modes: visual, numerical, emotional, and establish the process and deadlines for the decision as if the decision making were a project or a process with qualitative checkpoints.
The third recommendation is actually a counter-argument. And part of the least favourite parts of organisational change management. However your culture decides things, or if you are trying to change that culture with regard to decision making, teach people to be loyal to the decision. Nothing poisons an organisation faster than paying lip service to decisions, whether they come top-down, down-up, or outside-in. A decision should be honoured and executed.
I often say, and there is truth in it, a "bad decision will beat a good decision any day." Think about it. Any decision can be criticised, but at least it is a decision leading a learning process. Whereas a good decision.... well that takes forever and I've never seen unanimous consensus on good decisions. There is always the "minority report."
Organisations may focus too much of their energy on decision making, and not enough attention to doing what was decided.