7 ▪ Exploring Views

To explore views means to go more deeply into what team members express when asked for ideas. Too many ideas in business today receive a shallow review and are moved forward because of the pressure of time, an over-focus on results, discomfort with process, or because people don’t believe they are really going to have any influence on important decisions. Once ideas have been aired, and exposed to both positive and negative feedback, it’s time for some critical thinking. You can’t think critically about an idea you don’t fully comprehend, so it’s important to learn more about an idea under consideration before you can begin to develop and improve it. This part of the debate is where the rough edges of an idea that showed up in negative feedback are shaved off and the positive interior structure is strengthened. See key terms in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Explore Views

Draw Out

When you draw out, you query others in a way that deepens or extends your understanding of the information, idea, or point of view they have offered. Listening actively is a good start, but to further your understanding and establish conditions for developing the idea, you will need to go beyond your initial “take” on the idea and drill down to discover more. Using this skill stimulates others to be more thoughtful in the way they present their ideas and to communicate more fully and directly. The knowledge that someone is listening carefully and has enough interest to follow up generally improves the quality of the dialogue and may even improve the quality of the thought behind it. The goal of this approach is to begin a joint exploration of the idea or proposal; it is not to make the other person wrong or to put her or him on the spot. This should stimulate a broader discussion by the team. It’s also an opportunity to demonstrate that a variety of alternatives can be explored in a fair and nonthreatening way, thereby encouraging the expression of innovative ideas.

Example:

“Please say more about the reaction you expect from the vendors.”

Sentence-starters:

• “Help me understand your idea about

• “What would be an example of that?”

• “How would you see that working in . . .”

• “Tell me more about . . .”

Criteria:

To be most effective, drawing out should:

• Be based on something the other has actually said or implied

• Invite the other to offer reasons or examples

• Inspire the other to extend their thinking on the topic

• Not reveal one’s own judgment or opinion

When a person offers an idea, it’s possible that it just then occurred to them, but often the idea is one that’s been in the oven for a while. So, before you go further and explore it, it’s best to learn how long they have been thinking about it, what options they have considered for improving on it, and what new thoughts have been developing based on the feedback they have received. You can find out how strongly they feel about various aspects of the idea and where they have the most flexibility. Most important, you can make sure that everyone has a chance to be clear about it before you begin to develop it further.

Build on Ideas

This behavior allows you to add to, enhance, or elaborate on an idea offered by others. It encourages team members to share ideas that are still in development, which can lead to joint ownership and broader support. “Constructive Debate,” as suggested by its name, focuses on the building and improving of ideas, not on tearing them apart. Making an idea stronger, more supportable, more applicable, or more innovative is an activity that can involve many minds. In an atmosphere where only individual work is recognized and rewarded, people may hold back from improving the ideas of others, hoping instead to compete successfully with those ideas. Unfortunately, too many organizations subvert the idea-building process by failing to provide team rewards and recognition.

Trust is a strong requirement for sharing and building on ideas. You have to trust that others will not take credit inappropriately or discount your idea by discussing it with others outside the team. A practical set of norms that sets out how the team wants ideas to be treated will help establish this trust.

Example:

“I’d like to build on that suggestion by opening the session up to a wider range of participants; let’s invite people from the regions to send representatives.”

Sentence-starters:

• “I’d like to build on your suggestion by . . .”

• “Yes, and what if we . . .”

• “Going further along that line, how about . . .”

• “Let’s expand on that idea . . .”

Criteria:

To be most effective, when building ideas, you should:

• Be accurate in your characterization of the other’s idea

• Acknowledge the other’s contribution

• Expand the idea along the same or a similar line of thought

• Make the original idea more innovative or powerful

If a team is working on an important solution or opportunity, it’s especially important that everyone be given a chance to contribute to it, so that they will be more likely to feel committed to selling or implementing the final result.

Anticipate Consequences

Pursuing an idea to its logical conclusion can help to enlarge or deepen the discussion. Too often in today’s business world, we take an idea at face value and either accept or reject it without exploring further. This may cause us to lose a valuable line of inquiry that may be put forth in a tentative or ineffective way. Sometimes the most far-out idea can take us in an interesting new direction . . . if someone is willing to pursue it.

An important application of this skill is to help a group think about the possible unintended consequences of a decision or action. Hasty decisions can lead to costly and disastrous outcomes. The process of exploring ideas before accepting or rejecting them can be time-consuming, so people tend to rush through it—but when we do, the usual result is that we fall back on common wisdom and the politically correct ideas of the day. A commitment to follow more-unusual ideas through to conclusion is likely to lead to real change and innovation.

Example:

“This is a different line of thought from those we have been exploring. Let’s follow it through and see where it leads us. What might be the result of taking that action?”

Sentence-starters:

• “What are the implications of that idea?”

• “Where would that take us?”

• “What would logically follow from that?”

• “Let’s continue this line of thinking by . . .”

Criteria:

To be most effective, anticipating consequences should:

• Extend the idea to a logical endpoint

• Invite the other or the group to think together

• Go beyond the obvious, not be satisfied with pat answers

• Highlight potentially negative outcomes in a neutral way

These behaviors enlist the entire group or team in deepening ideas and can help to prevent unanticipated, undesired consequences. As individuals, we can be both blind to flaws in our own thinking and overly optimistic about outcomes if our suggestions should win the day. By temporarily setting aside our ownership of an idea and inviting colleagues to explore, we gain the power of collective intelligence—sometimes called the “hive mind” (think of the collective power of a beehive)—to improve our proposals and solutions. See the table “Summary: Criteria for Exploring Views” for strategies to develop exploration skills.

Summary: Criteria for Exploring Views

Draw Out	Build on Ideas	Anticipate Consequences
To be most effective, drawing out should: • Be based on something the other has actually said or clearly implied • Invite the other to offer reasons or examples • Invite the other to extend their thinking on the topic • Not reveal one’s own judgment or opinion	To be most effective, building on ideas should: • Be accurate in its characterization of the other’s idea • Acknowledge the other’s contribution • Expand the idea along the same or a similar line of thought • Make the original idea more innovative or powerful	To be most effective, anticipating consequences should: • Extend the idea to a logical end point • Invite the other or the group to think together • Go beyond the obvious, not simply be satisfied with pat answers • Highlight potentially negative outcomes in a neutral way

TAKING THE NEXT STEP

As the next team meeting is about to begin, the room buzzes with conversation and excitement. The noise fades as Sarah Hawthorne walks in.

“Today, you’re going to explore the ideas as deeply as you can,” she begins. “I want you to learn more about each of the suggestions by drawing out the person who’s championing it. Ask neutral, open-ended questions this time to develop a deeper understanding—this might also help the other person extend their thinking about the idea. Once you’ve done that, you can start to build on and improve the idea. And then, before we move on to the next one, think it through to what the possible consequences—whether positive or negative—could be. I’ll facilitate, so you can focus on each idea. Our goal should be to end up with stronger, more-robust ideas by the end of our session. And you may even decide to leave a few of them behind.”

A lively session ensues; the idea owners respond thoughtfully to questions—many of them pointing out areas they hadn’t considered. The team members especially seem to enjoy coming up with wittily exaggerated “worst-case” scenarios about unintended consequences. It’s fun and liberating, but the process also finds weak spots or risks that can be mitigated.

Finally, Sarah summarizes: “So I sense that you’re interested in moving two ideas forward: The savory yogurts, and the ‘cultural cultures.’ Do I have that right?”

“Yes,” offers Jason. “The other ones didn’t really pass the test when we anticipated the consequences. The limited-edition ones might leave us with a lot of unusable inventory. The mini-sized ones seem as if the packaging would make them too expensive—the easier and less expensive solution would be to eat half at a time.”

Susan speaks next. “I really appreciated all the new flavor ideas that people came up with. I’m pretty sure the savory yogurt idea is a winner!”

Raj adds, “And I liked having people ask me questions—it really pushed me to think through and develop my ‘cultural’ idea.”

Sarah summarizes: “So it seems you’re all pretty happy with where you are right now—the next time we meet, we’re going to put that confidence to a test!”