If you have been following this series (find part 1 here, and part 2 here), you know that it is important to have a “healthy level” of different perspectives or “healthy conflict” within your team. And everyone has their own natural style when it comes to conflict.
As a leader or manager, it is important to be able to assess what a situation needs and use the right style to promote a healthy discussion.
Step 4: Setting the Stage
For a healthy meeting, you need to set the stage by preparing yourself and your team’s mindset.
You may need to have pre-meetings to make sure that people are ready to discuss the topic. You need to prepare the agenda and set the tone for the best discussion and decision making. This includes:
Preparing yourself:
#1: You are there to facilitate. Your goal is for everyone to contribute to the conversation and offer perspectives. This often means you speak last. Give everyone the opportunity to offer input first. Don’t assume you have the answer.
#2: Assume positive intent. Most people come to work with the intent of trying to do a good job and contribute. If you are discussing something like error rate or a gap in results, assume positive intent. If this isn’t true, then you have a hiring issue.
“85% of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee” ~ W. Edwards Deming
Preparing your team:
#1: Create a good agenda. Have a clear objective and always end with next steps with individuals assigned to tasks.
#2: Set the stage. Let the team know:
- They are there to identify and solve problems together.
- All perspectives and input are important to select a solution.
- No blame game. Similar to assuming positive intent. Your goal is to look at results and discuss changes. People shut down when their status is affected.
#3: Encourage facts. What are the facts in regards to the issue? Making assumptions can lead to the wrong decision.
#4: Careful with using number. The goal of using numbers is to see the truth and encourage brainstorming, not to compare and punish. Where were the successes? What mistake do we want to avoid in the future?
Read more about supporting your team with their numbers here.
Final note
It takes time to build trust with the team members. You need to ease into looking at numbers together and start with team numbers first. By building trust, you will encourage your team to open up and get to the truth of issues as well as OWN their results and actions.
How healthy are your team meetings? I like to refer to David Rock’s SCARF model to assess the level of creating a collaborative, cooperative, and healthy team.
Want to learn more about David Rock’s model? Check out his paper or books.
