Essential Principles

from Able Leader, February 2007

by Steve Kaye

Your primary job during a meeting is to create an environment that facilitates excellence. This can determine whether you accomplish your goals, or not.

Such an environment is based upon three principles:

1) Everyone has valuable ideas.

- Why this matters.

A meeting is a team activity. Thus everyone must contribute for the meeting to be successful.

- What often happens.

A few people do all of the talking. Sometimes the person who called the meeting does all of the talking.

This is bad because monologues bore people. And exclusive dialogues frustrate the spectators who are stuck having to watch.

In either case, a vocal minority has a grand time while the rest become upset.

Results, if any, are seldom implemented because the majority disagree with them. And even if they consider the results acceptable, they often ignore them because they had no role in obtaining them.

- What to do.

Put everyone to work. That is, design an agenda based on questions and projects that direct efforts toward accomplishing your goals.

For example, instead of announcing, "We need to talk about the budget," ask a question, such as, "How can we reduce capital expenditures by 5% for the next quarter?"

Then, let the participants answer the question.

And this brings us to the difficult part of applying this principle.
You will have to moderate the flow of ideas from some so that you can create space for others to speak. Otherwise, your meeting reverts to a few talking while the rest watch.

You will also need to protect people from being attacked for offering odd ideas. This requires an artful blend of encouraging divergent thinking while evaluating ideas for practical merit. The key is to focus on the ideas (e.g., "How would we do that?") instead of the person offering the idea (e.g., "Are you kidding?").

2) Win/Win goals produce more.

- Why this matters.

People work harder to obtain a result that benefits all.

- What often happens.

Results are determined by majority rule through a Win/Lose voting process. This puts the focus on winning a contest instead of on finding a solution.

It also produces a result that some of the attendees dislike (i.e., they voted against it). And so, they refuse to support these results or, in the worst cases, they oppose them.

This leads to operational inefficiencies because proponents must deal with internal obstacles. Sometimes the minority prevails, thereby stopping a project or causing it to fail.

- What to do.

Obtain results by consensus. This means taking everyone through a fair process to obtain a mutually agreeable result.

Admittedly, this requires hard work and creative thinking. Now the group must find compromises based on Both/And solutions (instead of the traditional Either/Or voting).

As the leader, you will have to insist on results that benefit the entire organization instead of helping a few at the expense of others. You will have to facilitate a candid exchange of everyone's needs until these are completely understood by everyone.

You will have to guide the group with questions and expectations until you have a result that everyone will support.

3) Respect motivates people.

- Why this matters.

A safe environment, characterized by respect for everyone, encourages people to take risks, speak candidly, and think creatively.

Realize that security is an emotional resource. When it is abundant, people are more willing to share other resources and help each other. They are also more willing to work on results that represent common good.

- What often happens.

Some meetings feature hostility, insults, ridicule, threats, and anger.

No one works well under duress. People become protective, cautious, and conservative. They watch out for themselves. They try to prevent loss. They will even attempt to achieve security by taking from others. In fact, a hostile environment can quickly degrade into a predatory environment.

In that case, the meeting becomes more than a waste of time. It becomes a wound that hinders progress in every area of the business.

- What to do.

Treat everyone with respect. Listen to people's ideas. Speak diplomatically. Set an example of personal discipline. And expect everyone else to do the same.

Realize that every negative action reveals a weakness. And people want strong leaders.

Much success,

Steve Kaye
714-528-1300