The Fallacy About Group Consensus in Consultation

I was working with a group recently and the discussion turned to a recent consultation exercise the organization had run last year. Many of the group were unhappy with the outcome decided upon by the Senior Management Team, a familiar refrain "Management didn't listen to us!" was heard around the room.

I probed a little deeper about what had happened ... "We were asked for our views" I was told, "But Management didn't listen...", "I didn't agree with their decision ...", "It wasn't the outcome I wanted ...".

"What were you expecting from a consultation exercise?" I asked. It transpired that what many people expected was to be asked their opinion and then management to implement a proposal that everyone agreed on, even though not everyone agreed on THE solution. It seemed to me that people had got themselves a little bogged down in what consensus following a consultation exercise actually is.

So I referred people to the explanation of consensus provided by Chris McGoff in his book "The Primes". Chris describes consensus as the following ...

"Process Satisfaction: Was the process used explicit, rational and fair?

Personal Treatment: Were you, personally, treated well? Did you have ample opportunity to be heard, to make your opinion known and to consider others opinions?

Outcome Satisfaction: Can you live with the outcome and commit to supporting the decisions of the group?"

Note the distinction in this last point between "live with" and "agree with". You don't have to agree with everything, but can you live with the decision?

Having explained Chris McGoff's thought process I asked them to review the recent consultation process in light of the Consensus Prime. Upon reflection the group, with a couple of exceptions, believed that the process had been fair, they had been listened to and they could live with the outcome. As one participant commented if "I'd known that consensus didn't necessairly mean agreement, this would have been an easier ride".

So perhaps a learning point for all ... be clear what you mean by consensus when consulting with your employees.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know your thoughts.

Are Appraisal's finished?

Picture this, it is the final quarter of the year and a manager's mind turns towards annual ritual that is the year end appraisal. Now I don't know about you but many employees and their managers dread this event. Research I undertook in 2012/3 found that of the 30+ companies I spoke to, respondents indicated that they felt that the appraisal systems utilized in their company was disproportionately expensive to administer, overly complex and a bureaucratic box ticking exercise that often failed to deliver value.

Although it was never intended this way, too many employees found that performance feedback from their manager wasn't always forthcoming during the year and it wasn't unusual for performance issues to be raised at the year end and the conversation would deteriorate into an 'argument' over a numeric performance rating, rather than a constructive discussion on past and future performance. Interestingly this was more prevalent in larger companies, with complex performance management systems, in comparison with smaller companies with a less formal. As one respondent said, "We don't really have a performance management system, I simply review individual and team objectives with my team each week and we work on areas which need extra support or assistance."

But since then have organizations taken the opportunity to rethink the way organizations assess and manage performance?

The Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) highlighted that midway last year services firm Accenture decided to scrap the annual appraisal for it's employees, joining companies such as Microsoft and Gap in moving towards a more informal methodology for feeding back on performance achievement. In addition companies such as Google, Facebook and Netflix have scrapped appraisals entirely. 

However, those companies doing away with formal appraisals aren’t abandoning performance management entirely. A culture of more regular, informal feedback was often the approach being used. By managers pointing out problems as they arise, employees have the opportunity to address issues proactively to make an immediate difference to the business. In our workshop Managing the Unmanageable www.managingtheunmanageable.ca we focus on developing and supporting managers to do just this in a supportive way.

However simply getting rid of appraisal reviews won't solve the problem, as CIPD, CEO, Peter Cheese says: “If you’ve got managers who think their job is telling people what to do, and beating staff up all the time, then just stripping out the formal procedures won’t work. You’ve got to build the organization’s dynamics to create a more trusting environment.”

What's your experience of annual appraisals?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The festivities are often a time when we gather with family and friends and spend time celebrating together. However not everyone will get the opportunity to be with their families over the holidays.

I remember when growing up my late Father would often be working a shift over the holiday period. He would not only miss out on the excitement of Christmas morning, but would often return later that evening to eat his re-heated Christmas dinner, long after everyone else had eaten and had now retired to watch television or play games. I remember him sitting at the table, still in his uniform, eating his dinner whilst other family members passed through the kitchen wishing him a belated Merry Christmas.

So as we come up to the Christmas and New Year holidays please take a moment to spare a thought for the Emergency Services, Hospital Staff, Military Personnel and others who will be away from their families and working to protect the public and save lives this Christmas.

On behalf of everyone associated with Bluegem Learning I’d like to wish you all a very happy and peaceful holiday season.

Can Managers be “fixed”?

Author Peter Drucker wrote extensively on the subject of management and yet he remained skeptical of management – “So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.”

“He head-butted an employee – ‘because he was annoying’.”

“She stood over an employee for two hours until she agreed to sign an appraisal she disagreed with.”

“He kept kissing people on top of their heads.”

Just some of the submissions to a People Management survey earlier this year, looking at what HR thought of managers in their respective organizations.

Managers often get a bad reputation, somewhat driven by the type of comments highlighted above and a feeling in some quarters that managers don’t add value.

But are we being totally fair if we subscribe to this view?

In most instances a manager’s role is pretty diverse; managers are asked to communicate vision, act as a coach, mediate in disputes and assume accountability for business results - often with the background of being promoted into a managerial role having been a technical expert in their previous role, rather than necessarily having demonstrated leadership and management capability.

Is it any wonder that a number of managers then underperform.

So what can we do to help managers in the workplace?

Organizational Culture – culture and values are intrinsically linked to management behaviours, do the priorities set at the C-suite level encourage the type of behaviours you want from your managers or the opposite? There is not necessarily a right or wrong in terms of your organization’s management culture, however there should be synergy across the organization. It is also worth remembering that in tough economic times the need for “good” management is probably more important than in times of plenty.

Good management can turn organizations from good to great, help drive change and engage and empower employees.

Management Capability – consider some form of management training, ideally as people come into the job – don’t wait 20 years to enroll someone on their first management program, you wouldn’t allow a bus driver to drive a city bus without passing their driving test! At Bluegem Learning we have worked with managers from a wide range of businesses internationally to help build management capability on a range of subjects from what motivates people, performance management, coaching, how to have difficult conversations and personal resilience to name but a few. And the results ….

By using the techniques learned on one of our programs, one participant reduced absenteeism in her team by 15%, saving her organization $18,000 over 3 months.

A second participant improved production by 10% during a production run and brought the project in ahead of time and under budget after using the coaching techniques practiced on another program.

http://www.bluegem.ca/featured_programs.htm

Self Awareness – look at increasing managers self awareness of how they behave in the workplace and how they can interact even better with others. There are a range of useful tools on the market, one I particularly like is the MiRo behavioural assessment - managers gain insights into behaviour, motivations, communication and relationships, make better decisions, deal with change and personnel more effectively. So what do people say …

“Using MiRo in our team building activity has allowed us to understand ourselves, our colleagues and the dynamic that drives our team. Everyone found the results both accurate and enlightening, and together we have created strong strategies for moving forward as a high performing team.”

http://www.bluegem.ca/miro_behavioural_assessment.htm

Proper Incentives – ensure that the rewards and compensation system you have in place rewards the behaviours you want displayed by your managers and isn’t puling people in the opposite direction. People will only demonstrate particular behaviours if there is a good reason. If a Sales Manager simply receives a target-related bonus where is the incentive to focus on motivating and developing their team, however if the latter is built into their bonus package, how much more of an incentive does it become to demonstrate those behaviours?

Is Authenticity as a Leader Over Rated?

I have been reading a book entitled “Act Like a Leader, Think like a Leader” by Herminia Ibarra which has raised some interesting considerations about what “authenticity” means as a leader and also what Ibarra considers to be the new rules of management, which I’ve outlined below.

People become leaders unofficially – at one time there was a distinct moment when people became leaders, an official promotion, along with a change in job title and a new office. However now, people may find themselves in a leadership role somewhat unexpectedly. The expectations of your job change, perhaps you are asked to take responsibility for other staff working on a project with you. Somehow overnight you are now responsible for managing and developing these people, without necessarily having been prepared for this paradigm shift in responsibility.

Who is responsible for your development, you or the organization? – many people interviewed by Ibarra for her book, expressed dissatisfaction with the way in which their organizations are supporting their development and are finding their own ways to develop more effective, in some cases people found that their own managers did little to assist them during this transition. In some ways I have heard echo’s of this in my own work, recently I spoke with a group of managers in an organization who on average had waited 5+ years to get a place on their organization’s Leadership Program. Obviously the need for just in time learning is as important as ever and people can’t wait for 5 years to receive the development they need. It is little wonder therefore that people choose their own developmental path.

And finally … Is Authenticity as a Leader Over Rated – Ibarra’s point here is that authenticity in itself isn’t a bad thing, but rather that people have differing opinions as to what authenticity is. As she puts it – authenticity means being true to yourself – but it doesn’t necessarily mean having to be as you’ve always been. Overtime your values may shift, you may be influenced or be inspired by others thinking. As you move into a leadership role and interacting with others who aren’t necessarily like you, to be effective you may need to experiment with new approaches and get out of your comfort zone. As a result you may act differently than you did in the past, which doesn’t mean you’re not being true to yourself.

Check out our range of Leadership Training programs at Bluegem Learning - Leadership Programs.