Listening

Some thoughts on listening...

When listening to a group to make a decision there is value in figuring out what type of decision is being made. Is the purpose to decide on a matter mainly driving opinions (eg: Where to have the next kick-off) or how to best solve a technical problem? There will be a small group of people that share their beliefs and are wrong, and there will be a small group (often an even smaller), that share their beliefs and are right. For catering to opinions majority votes may work, for complex problems there is frequently not a an informed majority and votes may lead to overly simplistic paths because those might feel right or at least feel more practical. But remember, for solving complex problems, the wrong path may be costly or impossible, you must secure that the organization can behave more intelligent than even the best individual. It can be very tempting to use the majority vote where not appropriate since that will at least invoke the least immediate friction, however if it doesn't effectively solve the problem that is pointless.

Be humble to the fact that good ideas may come from anywhere, for complex problems you want several creative and different approaches to evaluate, experts can be great for many complicated problems but for complex problems you will want creative and out-of-the-box thinking that you may not easily get from an opinionated expert. Remember that you are not to be easily swayed by previous track record exclusively, you are evaluating ideas not the persons behind them.

It is not uncommon for some of the best thinkers to be quiet about their thought because they are simply not done thinking and do not want to express thoughts until they have sorted out more of the foundations they are basing their thought on. Unless you are in an emergency, do not to give overly high weight to fast and vocal thinkers.

Hearing others formulering thought in different words can give you new ideas. You restating their message can do the same for others as well as add gravity and credit to others as well and give condensed take-aways to act on. As a leader you will frequently be asked to or expected to talk a lot, avoid the trap of long monologues, ask for feedback and thoughts, to encourage critical thinking. Exploiting more brains to participate and contribute, is an amazing asset for any group, make sure to give plenty of opportunities for this.