Raise Your Competitive Thinking IQ: Make Room for All Voices

As we continue this series titled “Raise Your Competitive IQ,” this fourth (of five planned) posts on the topic may seem quite unnecessary to some of you. After all, it would seem perfectly logical to encourage and listen to all voices in a conversation where you want to encourage the best thinking. However, we all know this doesn’t always happen. This post is a brief look at breaking bad habits that get in the way of hearing those voices and shares a few tips on how to ensure you do hear those voices.

What Gets in the Way?

One common occurrence that can block hearing other voices in a conversation is when the leader of a meeting believes they already know the answer. In some meetings, the leader of the meeting simply talks “at” everyone else, more or less, conveying their view without leaving any real room for discussion. This may be intentional. There are some meetings of course where the purpose is to relay a decision already made by the leader or others. However, many times this is unintentional because the leader forgets that as someone in a position of authority, if they start relaying their own views first, others may simply assume it is a decision and that their views are not desired. If the leader of a meeting does not clearly state that the purpose of the meeting is to engage in a discussion of various views and does not ask questions and encourage response, the room may be silent.

Another unintentional cause of the stifling of voices may simply be a lack of good communication skills. This may take various forms such as a lack of open-ended questions (not knowing how to draw out responses and ask good “why?”, “what?”, or “how?” questions), poor modeling of active listening (open body language, eye contact, affirming response), or actively shutting people down by cutting them off or saying things like “we’ve already done that” or other responses that inhibit additional conversation. If you frequently lead meetings, paying attention to your own communication habits and even investing some time on your skills will be helpful.

A final, and very potent inhibitor to consider, is about mutual trust and respect. There is nothing that will silence individuals more quickly than when a person feels they cannot trust the person (or group) they are addressing or that they are not truly respected. Every idea should be treated as something worth hearing. Sure, there are ideas that may be naive, poorly constructed, or not practical, but there are ways to respond to such ideas that are constructive and certainly not disrespectful. Trust can be violated if a manager or others in the group inappropriately share what they have heard with others outside the group or if someone pokes fun at a member of the group and their idea to others. You cannot discount the extreme significance of having the full trust and respect of a group as a catalyst for sharing great thinking and that must start with those in leadership positions demonstrating trustful and respectful behavior.

Tips for Drawing out Other Voices

What are some basic best practices that you can employ if you are leading a meeting, or perhaps even as a participant, to encourage everyone to feel confident in sharing and also to be open in hearing others?

For those leading meetings:

• As you start a meeting, specifically state that you desire to hear from everyone during the meeting and that you welcome and value their thoughts and ideas as equal participants in a discussion.
• Truly listen to each voice in the group and insist that others pay attention and truly hear each other.
• Ask open ended questions that draw out new thinking, draw out additional meaning, and challenge veracity of ideas in a positive and constructive manner.
• Try not to be the first to share solutions or ideas since as the leader, others in the group may think that you are stating a decision vs. just sharing your thoughts. Allow others to speak first and often.
• Do not demonstrate or tolerate inappropriate responses that cut people off or diminish their contribution.
• For those attending meetings (when you are not the leader):
• Model good listening habits, demonstrating attentiveness and openness to those speaking.
• When are you sharing your thoughts, ask for feedback and ask others to challenge your ideas and offer alternative ideas that may improve your thinking.
• Don’t dominate the conversation and when possible, try and discourage others from dominating the conversation (if the leader is dominating this may be tricky, but this can be done tactfully).
• If you frequently attend meetings where there is a low level of group sharing, suggest that the leader try new formats that might encourage sharing (e.g., when discussing a topic, the person to the right of the leader can share any thoughts first (or pass), then the person to their right, continuing around the group until back to the leader).

Opportunity and Limits of Group Participation

Those tips will hopefully give you some ideas on improving the participation of your working groups in terms of thinking and innovating; however, in closing I should recognize that there are both opportunities and limits to this type of participative thinking. The opportunity is quite obvious in that one idea or several ideas may be greatly refined, improved, or tested with more veracity in a process where people who think differently and have different experiences (learning) can collaborate. True collaboration builds consensus and momentum around ideas and actions. But what about when consensus won’t work? There are situations where the consensus cannot be reached and a business leader or a minority portion of a group feels forced to go against the majority reasoning of the group.

One situation occurs when “group think” may be prevailing and squelching out a truly innovative idea. This can happen if a large portion of a group, or perhaps even all members of a group, are stuck in the same mental models or fears, and simply allow a great idea to pass because they fear failure or desire the satisfaction and comfort of the status quo. Of course, in business, the role of any group leader is to rise above this and, when necessary, still challenge the group to move forward. Often, as long as member of the group feel fully heard and understood, this is an easier task for that leader. A second situation to discuss is when the leader receives great input and likely should be aligning with the ideas of the group, but still make the choice to go with their own idea (or the minority idea) and thus, frustrate the group, leaving them wondering if giving input is really worth their time. I have observed many situations where leaders give lip service to “wanting input,” but really only do that because they think it is “good” and never intend to really consider any alternatives to their predetermined plan of action. This will create an atmosphere of mistrust very quickly and disengage employees very quickly.

If you want to create innovative and competitive thinking in your organization, encourage participation, listen to ideas, and have the wisdom and courage to know when to go with the consensus because it is the best idea, and when to continue to fight for a vision that perhaps others just do not see.