CHAPTER 25

Five Mistakes That Stall Your Team and What to Do About Them

Good leaders make basic mistakes that undermine their team’s forward progress and stall the business. In this chapter you’ll learn five common mistakes leaders make and some simple, practical tools that you can wield immediately to move the team forward and get the business back on track.

Listen in to the leadership team of a manufacturing company at their monthly strategic meeting.

Fritz, the Chief Marketing Officer, says passionately, “We need to put our energy into positioning our new product line and stop spending so much time and focus on the legacy products.”

“I totally disagree!” Stanley, Chief of Operations, jumps in. “We need to make sure we don’t lose the customers that got us here while we’re inventing something new.”

Fritz counters, “We definitely need new products.”

Betsy, the CFO, laments to Michael, the CEO, “Fritz and Stanley may both be right. We won’t know until we do a detailed analysis.”

“Okay, okay,” Michael concedes. “Fritz and Stanley, you two take your feud offline. We don’t have time to do a detailed analysis. We need to make a decision by the end of the week. If you don’t come to a solution, I will.”

Fritz and Stanley never come to a solution. In the next meeting, Michael lays out the product strategy plan that maintains focus on the existing customer base. Surprised that Michael made a decision without a discussion, the team listens quietly at the table, nodding their heads. Michael interprets these head nods as agreement and commitment.

Michael made several mistakes in this scenario. Do you know what they are?

FIRST MISTAKE: TAKING IT OFFLINE

There are a number of reasons taking something offline is not a good idea. There’s no argument that it’s appealing and, at first blush, seems efficient. No one wants to sit and listen to two people go back and forth for the umpteenth time.

Teams stuck in this back and forth are missing the point. They’re fighting over how to do something (the strategy) because they’ve lost sight of what problem they want to solve and why (the higher purpose). Let’s be clear here: this is a leader and team problem, not just an issue of the two members who are fighting.

So, why not take it offline and come back? Here are our thoughts.

First, the people on your team probably won’t take the disagreement offline, just like they didn’t in this story. Even if Fritz and Stanley did take it offline, without some accountability and support to have the right conversation, it is unlikely they would actually listen and consider each other’s position.

Even when people do take the discussion offline and work it out, they often don’t let anyone else on the team know. They move on and assume everyone else has too, or it seems redundant to bring it up again. It simply goes quiet. The rest of the team is left wondering: Did they work it out? What was the outcome?

Second, taking something offline limits the shared knowledge of the entire team. Debating in the meeting allows more people to weigh in, ask questions, and build on the ideas of the two people stuck in their positions. This is when a team’s creativity and innovation accelerate.

Tool: Treat Your Team Meeting as Your Playing Field

Think of the team meeting as your playing field. It’s where you play the game of business. The game doesn’t happen during practice or off the field in a solitary cubicle. You win or lose by how you play on the field! For a team to be smarter and more innovative, the entire team needs to be on the field playing the game in the meeting.

SECOND MISTAKE: FOCUSING ONLY ON SOLVING THE BUSINESS PROBLEM

You will reach the best, most creative business solution by being aware of both the ME and WE. It’s not enough to focus on solving the business problem without understanding the underlying breakdown in relational health on the team.

Michael, the CEO in our example above, has clearly not addressed the repeating dynamics between Fritz and Stanley. He is so uncomfortable with the tension that he curtails the discussion in order to reach a business solution, albeit his own opinion. He contributes to the logjam by his avoidance.

It’s easy to see the business issue as most important. But if you don’t address the relational health aspects by having people show up fully, the end solution may be determined by the loudest person or by you alone. A racecar needs to slow down around the curves so it can speed up on the straightaway. In that same way, a leader needs to first ensure the health of the ME and the WE in order to dive deep into clarity.

Tool: Why is This Important to You?

When two approaches to a business scenario are mutually exclusive or irreconcilable, rushing to a solution doesn’t work. You wind up solving the wrong problem for the wrong reason. Instead, do some WE work and wade into the tension. Seek to understand where each of these passionate opinions is coming from.

Here’s a powerful question to unearth what drives each person, “Why is this so important to you?”

Each person’s answer will reveal the source of her passion, what drives her from inside. This valuable insight helps you and the team expand your thinking. No longer do you see A versus B. Now you see deeply into the entire scope of the scenario. Asking this question gets you out of either-or thinking and shifts you into the Aha! zone of creative solution and innovative problem solving.

Michael could have asked this question of both Fritz and Stanley to get underneath their strong opinions. Instead, he bypassed each of them, and even Betsy, to reach his own solution. His solution clearly was not informed by any of his team’s perspectives, and that limited depth, innovation, and buy-in by the team.

THIRD MISTAKE: ASSUMING HEAD NODS MEAN YES

Let’s assume the team meets for a third time. This time, Betsy speaks up. “I’m not sure we’re going in the right direction. Can we revisit the decision on product strategy?”

How many times has that happened to you? You think the direction is set, only to be revisiting the issue the following week or month.

When Michael had his second meeting, he assumed head nods indicated agreement. More often, head nods mean, “I hear you,” or “I’m thinking about what you’re saying.” They can even mean, “Yeah, and I totally disagree, but I’m not going to say anything right now.” Your team deserves a more concrete tool to gauge how people think and feel about a decision.

Tool: Quick Explicit Indicator

We mentioned this idea in Chapter 23 talking about Wide-View questions. Have people make their level of buy-in explicit by either using their thumbs or a color card.

If someone gave a yellow, thumb sideways or red, thumbs down, let them speak and be heard. Engage them in the dialogue. They may present a point of view that you want to incorporate or a question you want to address during implementation. Ask them, “What do you need to be all in?”

This is a quick, simple, and powerful way to focus the discussion that will get to clarity around the table. If everyone doesn’t get to a green, thumbs up and the decision is to go ahead, ask if they can disagree and commit. We will address that next.

FOURTH MISTAKE: WORKING FOR CONSENSUS

Different opinions about important strategic issues are exactly what generate creative outcomes. Some leaders are under the impression that they have to work to reach consensus about a final outcome. We disagree. You do want the rich passionate debate, and you do want everything out on the table. But you will waste precious time and water down good ideas if you require everyone to agree.

So, what do you do when the team doesn’t all agree?

Adults don’t need to get their way, but we do want to feel that we are heard and our ideas are considered. Once that happens—really happens—we can, and will, agree to commit, even if our opinion is different. (For a refresher on effective listening, reread Chapter 21, “Increase Your Team’s IQ”.)

Tool: Disagree and Commit

Andy Groves, the founder and CEO of Intel, coined the term disagree and commit.19

When an individual voices her perspective and feels genuinely heard and then commits, even if she still disagrees, she walks out of the meeting with words and actions in alignment with the decision of the team. No one outside that room will know that she had a different opinion.

With this tool we ask the team, “Can you commit to this decision even if you disagree?” and we use the thumbs indicator tool. If thumbs are sideways or down we ask, “What do you need to know, discuss, or have in order to commit?”

Standing behind disagree and commit builds team trust and alignment for the decision that carries throughout the rest of the organization because every leader supports the decision by her words and actions.

Imagine after the second meeting if Fritz, who wants to launch the new product line, goes back to his departmental marketing team and says, “Well, I don’t agree with Michael’s decision. He’s making us focus on an existing customer base. I think it’s a big mistake!” That statement will destroy the trust, alignment, and cohesion on the leadership team, on his own team and also with people lower in the organization. People will worry and think, “Oh, no! There is chaos up there. Who’s running this ship?”

Nothing hinders team cohesion, fractures organizational trust, and causes massive issues more than one person on the leadership team talking behind the team’s back. “Well I don’t agree, but they’re making us do this.” That statement infects a deadly corporate cancer. Instead, disagree and commit.

FIFTH MISTAKE: ANALYSIS PARALYSIS

Following the above example, pretend that Michael uses the thumbs indicator in his forth meeting, and it is Betsy who again speaks up. “I’m just not sure we have enough data to be successful.”

This is a common reason for a thumb either down or sideways. Don’t fear the analyzer, and don’t let her stop your team! There’s a difference between clarity and certainty. You want clarity, a good direction, and alignment, not perfection. As Colin Powell put it, “Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.”20 We agree. Don’t wait until you can be 100-percent sure, because by then, it’s too late.

Procrastination in the name of reducing risk often increases risk because windows of opportunity close. Once you take action, even imperfect action (the dreaded mistake), more relevant data will be revealed to help you find the best path through. A good team can recover from this scenario together.

Tool: Worst Case Scenario

People want certainty when they lack trust in the team’s ability to succeed. No matter the reason, a way through this potential blockage is to ask, “What’s the worst case scenario?”

When we think through the worst case scenario and believe we can handle it, we open the way to move forward with a good enough plan versus a perfect plan. A healthy team that takes imperfect action develops the ability to self-correct.

RECAP

Keep the team moving forward and the Business on track by avoiding these five mistakes:

  1. Taking it offline
  2. Focusing on solving only the business problem
  3. Working for consensus
  4. Assuming head nods mean yes
  5. Analysis paralysis

Instead, use the five tools to drive great team discussions:

  1. Treat the team meeting as your playing field.
  2. Ask, “Why is this so important to you?”
  3. Use a thumbs or color indicator as a temperature gauge.
  4. Request disagree and commit.
  5. Ask, “What is the worst case scenario?”

These five tools will make you a more effective leader, keep the WE aligned, and keep the business focused on solving the right problems innovatively. Want your teammates to use tools to make your meetings successful? Download Make Your Meetings Matter at www.Thriveinc.com/beautyofconflict/bonus.

Is your team the right size? Read on to find out.