Don Sull's blog

Managers and employees spend much of their time in discussions, but too often conversations bog down in an endless series of unproductive meetings in which the usual suspects cover the same ground without making progress. Frustration mounts as participants “spin their wheels” or “talk in circles.” This frustration often occurs when managers lead the wrong kinds of discussions at the wrong time in the wrong way.

My last post introduced the agility loop as a simple framework to helm managers and employees structure and lead discussions in a more effective manner. The first step in structuring and leading discussions through the agility loop consists of deciding which discussion to have when, who should be involved, and how to lead these conversations. The following questions can help managers improve their discussions.

1. What are we talking about? This simple question often surfaces a disturbing lack of focus about the objective of a discussion. Discussions, particularly those that take place in large groups, often derail when participants pursue multiple strands simultaneously and end up talking past one another. To focus their brainstorming discussions, the design firm IDEO enforces a rule that a team can only discuss one idea at a time.

2. Are the right people in the room? Conversations often fail before they begin, when team leaders fail to bring the right people into the discussion. Teams can better make sense of an ambiguous or complicated situation, for instance, by drawing on outside viewpoints-from customers or regulators for instance-to formulate a more rounded view of the situation. Discussions to ensure vigorous execution, in contrast, require that the people who will do the work-rather than their boss or colleague-are in the room. Their presence increases the odds they will understand what they are expected to do and why it matters, and also give them an opportunity to explain their constraints and ask questions.

3. Are we talking about the right thing right now? Managers must make a call on what conversation is appropriate for the current situation. A team may be jumping into execution, for example, when they should first pause to assess the situation, or they may jump back to first principles when they should be focused on discussions to get things done. Of course, these discussions bleed into one another, but a leader has the responsibility to set clear expectations on what type of discussion will be most helpful at a specific point in time.

4. Does the conversation have the right tone? Leaders must understand what an effective discussion sounds like in each step. They should establish and maintain a spirit of open inquiry while trying to interpret an ambiguous situation, for example, and promote respectful arguments when making hard trade-offs. The tone that works for one discussion can kill another. When evaluating well-articulated choices, a critical tone can ensure that the underlying assumptions and risks are thoroughly vetted. Relentless criticism when making sense, however, can stifle the creativity necessary to consider an ambiguous situation from different perspectives.

5. Are we skipping key conversations? Managers must ensure that they are having all the conversations they need. Leaders with a bias for action often shortchange discussions to interpret a situation in their haste to start doing something, while more cerebral executives may dwell on strategic issues and not spend enough time ensuring execution.
These questions may strike you as common sense, and they are. Unfortunately, common sense is not always common practice. In working with companies, I am surprised at how often very seasoned executives waste time in discussions because they have not asked (and answered) these basic questions.

A simple exercise can help you assess how well your own team or organization does in answering these questions. Select a half dozen discussions that you will participate in the next week, and which you consider important to your unit’s or team’s success. For each conversation, assign a grade on how well the team did on the five questions above. Identifying where conversations are falling short is the first step to improving them.