Strategy 3: No Guide? Follow the Self-Directed Process


Overview

A moderator or facilitator can help discussions be more productive, build teamwork, and keep group members from lapsing back into old ways. But even if you don't have a specially trained facilitator (see "Choosing a Facilitator" later in this strategy for information on facilitation), you can still put the ten-step process to work right now. If your group is hemorrhaging as the result of internal conflict and no doctor is available, you can roll up your sleeves and cure it yourself. This approach may not be perfect, but it's much better than letting your hopes die.

Typical ways to decide issues and lead teams are simply falling short. As evidenced in boardroom power plays and political debates, participants fear losing ground, engage in wars of words, take cheap shots, and fail to bring people together to solve problems. The results of all this are that CEOs now typically have short tenures, elections swing on slim majorities, and people give up on their collective ability to make meaningful improvements.

The problems that arise with decision making and teamwork stem from the ways people choose to go about their work and lives together. It's a system problem, the result of a series of factors, and it requires active intervention to change it. And some people are doing just that. For example, columnist David Broder described a state political campaign several years ago that began in a fiercely negative style. The tenor of debate dramatically improved when a debate moderator insisted that the candidates speak only about their own character and ideas and not criticize those of anyone else. This format respected the observers' abilities to judge what each person presented and decide for themselves.

If no one in your organization has the needed facilitation skills, and you don't plan to hire an outside leader, you can develop the necessary skills yourself. Then you, too, can encourage a change for the better by confidently guiding your team through the ten-step process.




How Great Decisions Get Made. 10 Easy Steps for Reaching Agreement on Even the Toughest Issues
How Great Decisions Get Made: 10 Easy Steps for Reaching Agreement on Even the Toughest Issues
ISBN: 0814407935
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 112
Authors: Don Maruska

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