As a coach and/or facilitator, we want to help teams figure out how to move forward.
Specifically in this little blurb on decisions.
Often though, the tricky business of giving teams autonomy & some impetus to move forward, we can fall into one of two extremes.
1. We get frustrated & hurry things along - picking out a strong opinion from the
bunch & railroading the others in the team. The other voices get lost, they might go with the decision but now they ain't so engaged & it might harbour some resentment.
2. .We try to please everyone & get stuck - we certainly invite all voices to be heard but we become focused on an individuals happiness with a decision. This can result in painful decision process which can create the "I can't be bothered for that retro again, we can't decide on one bloody thing" syndrome.
There's a way I like to handle this dynamic.
Here's how it works:
A decision pops up, could be a Team Working Agreement, Ways of Working, Agreeing on the Retrospective Item etc
People use their hands to vote using the numbers above, all at the same time
What we're looking for are any '0'
Because a '0' suggests that a person cannot tolerate the decision being presented
But here's the catch
If you vote a '0' you need to provide an offer
That gets put back into the mix, we invite a dialogue on the new option offered
Rinse & repeat
Remember to prime the team or group, that if we focus on happiness with every decision, we could be here a long, long time. Instead, let's focus on tolerance - if something is good enough to try, let's consider it because before you know it, the iteration will be over.
Thanks,
Jem