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Navigating Group Decision-Making Well
Excerpt from Lead Conversations that Count: How Busy Managers Run Great Meetings
(Rowntree Press, 2021)
There’s a time for blue-sky thinking, brainstorming and idea generation. And there’s a time for making choices, setting priorities, and separating what’s mission-critical from ideas for another time. Knowing when to shift from one thought process to another can feel messy, confusing and confronting. This is where your surfing skills will be tested.
The transition between convergent and divergent thinking is known by facilitators as “The Groan Zone”. As Sam Kaner, author of the seminal Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making says, “building shared understanding is a struggle, not a platitude”. It’s the messy middle where some people want to keep coming up with ideas, while others are ready to get down to brass tacks and make choices.
Learn to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. The Groan Zone is a natural dynamic of group discussion. “When people experience discomfort in the midst of a group decision-making process, they often take it as evidence that their group is dysfunctional. As their impatience increases so does their disillusionment with the process,” says Kaner. “Misunderstanding and miscommunication are normal, natural aspects of participatory decision-making. The Groan Zone is a direct, inevitable consequence of the diversity that exists in any group. Working through these misunderstandings builds the foundation for sustainable agreements. Without shared understanding, meaningful collaboration is impossible.”
In the iconic film Ghostbusters, there’s a scene where the Ghostbusting team arrives onsite to de-ghostify a New York City hotel. Their new proton-pack guns are tested for the first time, and they emit a ray that will zap a ghost into a containment box. Before they burst into a haunted ballroom to bust up the apparitions that have terrorized the hotel guests, Egon Spengler (played by Harold Ramis) warns his team not to cross the streams when zapping apparitions. When asked why they shouldn’t, his response is simply, “It would be…bad.”
That scene often pops into my mind when I’m in a facilitated session, and the person leading the discussion veers from generative, divergent conversation into convergent, “let’s make some choices here” mode. A perspective met with an editorial comment such as, “Oh, well that’s not really what we’re focusing on now” or “That’s a fantastic idea!” sends conflicting signals. Those comments signal a value judgment from the Conversation Leader. Your role is to spark, direct and create the environment for an engaged and enlightening discussion. Assessing ideas as they emerge tags some as better than others and works counter to the principle of tapping into the diversity of thought around the table.
Don’t cross the streams. It would be bad.
Take Action
Navigating in the Groan Zone requires patience and curiosity. What are the top 5 clues that let you know your patience is running out. It might be cutting people off or finishing their sentences. It could be starting to jiggle your foot or tap your pen on your desk. Keep that list of clues visible so the next time you are experiencing the messy, winding roads of a gnarly conversation, you can spot these clues earlier and remind yourself that a group needs to explore the discussion fully before they can deeply commit to narrowing the options and making a decision.
Resources
Michael Bungay Stanier, The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever, (Page Two Books: 2020)
Sam Kaner, Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, (Jossey-Bass: 2014)
Author Information: This is an excerpt from Lead Conversations that Count: How Busy Managers Run Great Meetings by Carolyn Ellis (Rowntree Press, 2021). For more information on the book, please visit www.LeadConversationsThatCount.com. This article may be shared provided the author information is included.
