Step 8 in Action

Step #8 in Action

Tough Issue: Reaching Agreement on Future Products

Tim's R&D team members, who were trying to determine the best path to their next generation of products (see the example in Step #6), braced themselves for the results of their secret ballots. They had already identified three possible solutions and, following Step #7, had cast their secret ballots. As they waited for the ballot results, many questions swirled around: "Which approach do you think garnered the most support?" "Were the last two hours of discussion worth it?" "Will there be a clear agreement that fulfills our hopes for a shared platform to develop new products, or will we be back where we started, with no agreement and no path for moving forward?"

A Great Decision Solution

The ten-member group had cast their votes for option A, B, or C, circling the best choice for the group and adding any other viable alternatives. Option A was the status quo approach of multiple, incompatible software systems. B and C represented different choices for a common software development system.

Now, they tallied the ballots on a large piece of flip-chart paper for everyone to see. One of the group members recorded the ballot results and completed the Solution Finder chart as shown in Figure 13. She entered a tick mark in the row on the left-hand column that corresponded to the option listed as the first choice on a ballot. Then, she added tick marks along that row in the columns corresponding to the other choices the ballot listed as acceptable alternatives.

1st Choice	(acceptable alternative) A	(acceptable alternative) B	(acceptable alternative) C
A
B
C

Figure 13: Example— Solution Finder reveals best choices.

As you can see in Figure 13, the majority of the group thought B was the most desirable option for pursuing the group's shared hopes. It received seven first-choice votes and two votes from members who thought C was the best solution but that B was an acceptable alternative. Option C trailed with a total of three first-choice votes and five persons who considered it a viable alternative to B. As much as everyone had previously resisted deciding upon a common software system, no one included that status quo option (A) on a ballot. Thus, the group focused on option B and discussed opportunities to incorporate elements of option C. They decided on B as their first choice, with C as a backup.

Through working together, participants in this process found agreement together. They overcame their fears—even their fears that they would never find a solution upon which they could agree.