Leaders Listen…to everyone

Posted: January 11, 2014 | Categories: Leadership, Team Building

While reading the Wall Street Journal this morning, I noticed an article on “Work Place Bias”.  The author gave an example of an executive from a major aerospace security system provider.  Her name was Denise, and she admitted “I may not have made the best decisions because of inadequate input from introverts.  I tend to favor more talkative personalities.”

This reminded me of a key fundamental of a collaborative team:  Idea fluency.

Several years ago, I helped facilitate a team-building exercise with a group of people at a property management company.  The activity was a carefully crafted drill that simulated a group of folks in a cabin in the woods.  There was a forest fire raging, and it was coming their way.  The team was given an ax, a blanket, a compass, a gallon of water and a shovel.  They were challenged to come up with a plan of action as a team.  The goal was to safely survive the fire.

The discussion began, and there was much creativity.  One suggested getting some birch bark and building a canoe.  Some thought they should head north, and some said south.  There was a person on the team from China visiting this country on a visa.  He struggled with his English, but he was able to make his suggestion clear.  He thought they should just stay in the cabin.  When the rest of the group heard this, they shot down his idea.  One said, “Stay in the cabin?  You’ve got to be kidding.  We would get fried for sure”.  At that, the person making the suggestion backed down, and never said another word.

As a result of the discussion, the team decided that the best plan would be to head in a direction away from the fire and keep going until they got to safety.  Now it was time to tune in to the comments from the ranger.  He would tell us the best plan of action.  Can you guess what it was?  If you guessed staying in the cabin, you are correct.  The forest ranger explained, “As rangers, we know every living quarter on the acreage.  Those places are the first things we check.  If you were to venture out in to the forest, we would have to hunt for you.  That takes extra time – time you cannot afford to spend in a forest fire”

So the Chinese fellow was right.  He was just quiet.  That taught us all quite a lesson:  Listen to each person and suspend judgment.  Even though they are shy, they just might have the best idea.