Building our robust debate muscle is something I find most leadership teams, and people, including me, could do with a few workouts focusing on. In some teams, the muscle is barely lifted, with many unsaid ideas and perspectives, and high levels of artificial harmony and compliance.
For others, the conversation is hot, fierce and firmly embedded in win/lose. Less a debate, more an arm wrestle with the loudest voices, or the most senior person striding out with their position firmly held.
For many, we get along well as a team. There is mutual respect and professional conversations. But we tend to stay in the ‘safe’ zone. Curiosity, challenging the status quo, being able to challenge thinking – that is the next evolution as a team.
First up, in this edition of Ferocious Warmth Musings, I want to visit a concept from my second book, Glue: The Things That Bind Us Together to Do Extraordinary Work. It’s the concept of building a team’s Robust Ideological Debate muscle.
This muscle increases when people feel connected to each other and the work. It helps us take the first step towards having safe, great debate. Rather than conflict, I call it robust ideological debate. Instead of fighting or posturing, it’s discussing the things that matter to us as a team. It takes away the personal and gets to the real conversation.
How can we thrive, and what is the work that we need to do? Psychological safety is what gets teams to high performance. They feel safe to talk about the elephants in the room.
One of the best leaders that I’ve ever seen in action, Sarah, is a brilliant RID facilitator or discussion. Sarah is also a transformational leader who creates individual connection and trust with her people. Walk around her organization, and you can see that they co-create a safe environment for people to be who they are. They celebrate each other and show gratitude.
Their purpose and principles are evident in everything they do. They have elephants on the meeting agenda. It’s a fun way to remind the team to raise issues before they become elephants. They make sure that, as a team and as an organization, the culture is one of: let’s talk about stuff that’s not working or worrying us before it gets too hard, too big, or too emotionally charged.
How do we build it?
Start with the easy ones first
Grab a bunch of hot (but not too spicy!) topics that are safe to start with and test them out. Pick a low-priority one, and experiment with some processes to tease out the thinking (I’ve got one for you to use – see below). Use a facilitator to start with if that helps, or someone from another team with that skill if you don’t feel confident enough to do it yourselves.
It is such a critical team skill, and we don’t spend enough time building it.
When the Robust Ideological Debate muscle develops and flexes, the team is so much stronger
Then add a bit of chili
As the muscle gets stronger, move to the harder ones. Make sure you start with the principles that allowed you to work well with the lower priority ones. What are the norms that worked for everyone? When that can often go to conflict. Recode them into a robust ideological debate and as you do it, have a bit of fun with it.
Use post-it notes.
Create large charts that clearly identify the issues that challenge you. Be curious about it and develop curiosity and intrigue about these hot topics and what people think rather than fear.
Much of our work as leaders is to create the environment for good, hearty dialogue. Spaces where intellectual friction fuels the conversation- I’ve been thinking a lot and talking with different people about what happens when we need to dig deep to understand situations better, share our opinions, and collaborate
Professional debate and exploration should help us get better, not worse. If done well it helps us clarify our thinking, explore our different opinions, and bring in perspectives we haven’t heard before. And rather than being right, collaborating to find the best right for the context.
