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Inclusion
means getting others to commit to the team effort, helping others through
their "diving board doubts" to genuine commitment. Since leaders now
understand this process first hand, we need only communicate with the
potential team members to complete inclusion.
The
best setting to obtain buy-in and build trust is in small groups that
facilitate thorough give and take. The basic tasks are to communicate the
vision, make sure it is understood, communicate leadership's commitment
(including sharing risk and reward, and how), and elicit and address
peoples' doubts.
Leaders will need three communication skills to achieve inclusion. These are
the non-assumptive question, good listening, and directed response.
1. Non-assumptive questions ("What do you think?", "Can you tell me what is
happening with this report?") invite real answers because they are
inclusive, not intrusive. Questions containing assumptions ("Why are you
skeptical?", "Why is this report so incomplete?") invite defensiveness. When
converting an atmosphere of change and possibly skepticism to trust, added
defensiveness is counter-productive.
2. Listening means separating the process of taking in information from the
process of judging it. Kept separate, both processes are valuable. Mixed,
especially when the receiver is a designated leader, the sender is invited
to stop communicating or to change the message midstream.
3. Directed response. Effective team leaders demonstrate responsiveness.
Since leaders have already processed their own pre-commitment doubts, many
questions can be answered on the spot. Some require research and a time line
for response. And some, which relate to the bottom line, irreducible risk,
require a truthful "I don't know. I'm in the same soup as you."
Vision
Vision means being able to excite the team with large, desired outcomes.
Commitment
Commitment can be a dangerous concept because of its attendant assumptions.
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Trust
Trust is the antidote to the fears and risks attendant to meaningful commitment.
Inclusion
Inclusion means getting others to commit to the team effort, helping others through their "diving board doubts" to genuine commitment.
Help
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The final step in creating the team is to establish a corroborative, balanced strategy for reaching the committed vision. |