High Performing Teams and the Power of Dissent

Last month’s blog raised a lot of response and you all seemed to agree.  And although there was no disagreement we all know that diverting thoughts, out of the box thinking helps to create better decisions we don’t practice it.  What can be done about that?

We learned over the years that a lot of change never takes place because there is something in the undercurrent of organisations that is not made explicit. Forces that seem to steer the organisation away from the desired results. Some see it as a cultural force that has to change. Usually new leaders change their teams and hope ‘for the better’. We take a different perspective and see it as an unused reservoir of great ideas and thoughts that are not being used.  It is your task as a leader to tap from those resources and make sure they are being heard. It is one of the principles that Eric Schmidt mentions in the book How Google Works.   In our high impact team interventions we facilitate team members to appreciate the differences in thinking, behaviour and styles of their colleagues. And how to make best use of those differences to get better decisions and results.  Genuine trust and respect are key words.  Dissent and a solid deadline do the rest.  You can boost the performance from any team by making the undercurrent explicit from time to time.  Not just when you welcome new team members,   invest every year and build team capabilities.  Soft and airy fairy? Not at all. It is all about values, purpose and motives.   Exchanging and appreciating those builds trust and sense of purpose.  Everything starts there. I am sure Eric picked it from one of our programmes. Maybe he’ll have a dissention opinion about this. Fair enough.