Enabling dissent

In our last article, we reviewed how to strategically use an inclusive process to make group decisions. This both empowers and grants ownership of the decision to the entire group. In this article, we will discuss one of the major aspects of the open decision making process: enabling dissent. This article is a compilation of ideas from a number of my colleagues at Red Hat, in an open forum discussion we had on the subject.

Dissent is super important in open decision making. You don’t want to be surrounded by “yes-men”, people who always agree with everything you say. You already know everything that you’re saying and what you believe to be the best path forward. However, you also know, or should know, that your knowledge, experience and visibility of the entire picture is limited. What you really need are perspectives from people with knowledge, experience and visibility that is complementary to yours to help round out your view of the complete picture. People who will bring up something that you didn’t think of or didn’t fully comprehend its importance.  A leader should never be afraid to admit that they made a mistake.

Enabling dissent and empowering people to take part in decision making is not an easy task. There are a number of reasons why people do not want to actively disagree with a leader. After looking at them, we will discuss a number of approaches that should work to mitigate these issues. Keep in mind that this is not an inclusive list and there are plenty of other reasons why someone may not speak up during a meeting.

• strict hierarchical cultures - Some cultures promote a culture of obedience and hierarchy. They are taught from the time they are young to always be respectful, that the senior person knows everything and never to disagree. Individuality is often seen as a sign of arrogance. When you state an opinion, it may be taken as “the way it will be done”. Giving a contrary opinion in a large meeting may be very difficult for them.
• lower self-confidence - People are afraid of being wrong or failing. If they made a suggestion that was shot down, they may feel hesitant to offer another opinion. If the suggestion was accepted and then the idea failed, this can also severely lower their self-confidence.
• new ideas - When a new idea is presented, it may take some time for people to think about it. There might be a feeling that it's missing something, but they don’t know exactly what. They might want to research first or remember exactly where they saw an article discussing this exact point before speaking up. 
• fear/lack of psychological safety - Sometimes people are concerned that their positions might be threatened if they disagree with an idea. They may be afraid that people will laugh at their suggestions. This may or may not be based on a realistic repercussion in this specific situation, but it may be based on past experience or grapevine chatter.
• disbelief that their input will be taken into account - It is very disheartening when a leader pays lip service to open decision making but does not actually enable the other members of the group to influence. When someone believes that no matter what he says, the leader will go with his own opinion in the end, there is no benefit for him to speak up. 

There is also the opposite problem, when you fully enable dissent, but the person disagreeing with you believes that he is 100% correct and continues to argue his point even after it is rejected. Some people will vehemently argue about anything and everything.

Now we understand that when presenting an idea and asking for opinions in a meeting, there may be plenty of great ideas and perspectives that are left unsaid. How can we unleash the power that this potential represents? This generally requires a multi-faceted approach in order to bring it all out.

• Ask for ideas before you present a proposal - This removes the dissent from the picture because instead of disagreeing with you they are helping to build a proposal. Tell them what you want to know in advance to give them time to think, research and understand. Ask them to email you ideas in advance and encourage people personally to participate. This can be time-consuming and a lot of work, but it is worth it in the end. When you do put together the proposal, make sure that it includes the ideas you received. If there were things not taken into account, let them know why. During the meeting where you present the proposal, call out the people who made suggestions and thank everyone for their important contributions.
• Don’t make final decisions in a meeting. After ideas are brought up, send a survey with the options and ask the group what they think of the idea. This will give them time after the meeting to fully think over what you are suggesting, research it and form an opinion.
• If possible, meet with people individually if you think they are not going to speak up in public. Tell them their opinion is very valuable to you. Having these informal discussions is a great way to get feedback from people from strict hierarchical cultures as well.
• If it's a small enough meeting, call on every person individually and ask them what they think. If the meeting is too large for that, you can try a thumb or spotlight  approach.
• Always thank people for dissenting opinions. Even if they aren’t accepted, showing appreciation will go a long way in building the safe environment for people to express themselves freely. When someone presents a perspective, relate to what they’re talking about and not to the person themselves. Instead of “You never think things through...”, try “Great idea, but I see some challenges involved… let's think about how we can overcome them.”

Using these methodologies will empower your group to fully explore how to achieve their objectives. It should present the decision maker with all the available perspectives and enable them to make the decision that is best for the group. Best of all, by being inclusive, the entire group will own the decision and passionately work to implement and execute.