A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear a gentlemen speak who was associated with a hospital ethics committee in Toronto. He was providing us with some tools for dealing with difficult medical ethics scenarios. One thing he said that has remained with me is that on his committee they learned to look for and hear the dissenting voice. When working through a complex ethical dilemma he pointed out that it was easy to begin focusing on certain details or factors in order to simplify or manage the problem. One element would come to be the centre of attention and could often become the key factor that was shaping the discussion. It became the one thing or point of view that everyone was seeing. Sometimes this was good because it meant the group had weeded out the secondary concerns that while important, were not at the heart of the issue. But sometimes it meant that the group was missing something important because they had become so fixated on that one consideration. The dissenting voice was the one that stood out from the majority. It was the person who saw something different and was able to point it out. It might be as simple as, “what about this over here? I’m wondering if we have really accounted for it or addressed it adequately.” The dissenting voice was not always correct, but this speaker pointed out that it often stopped the committee from slipping into ‘group think’, or at least gave them reason to pause and make sure they were considering everything they needed to.
I often hear people, leaders in particular, talk about wanting to surround themselves with others who are different than they are. They desire a diversity of perspectives and do not want ‘yes’ men or women. They want individuals who will contribute openly to the discussions and problems at hand, express differing viewpoints, think outside the box, etc. I am sure these sentiments are genuine, but experience tells me that it is a lot easier said than done.
Being open to a viewpoint that is different than yours is generally an acquired skill. And being the dissenting voice can take a significant amount of trust and courage. It takes courage to raise your hand and point out something that you believe is being missed or, perhaps even harder, not being done in the way it should. There is risk in raising an issue that may be contrary to where the rest of the team is currently at or heading. You risk the ill-will of a co-worker or team lead. You risk being wrong and possibly embarrassed. But great teams and organizations take these risks and encourage them. They listen for the dissenting voice and find ways for it to be practiced and expressed wisely.
Doing this requires a high level of trust within the team and organization. It requires a culture that truly allows for diversity in its best forms and one where being wrong is not a career limiting move. All of this takes a significant investment, but it is well worth it. Among many other things, the dissenting voice may save the team from wasting significant time and resources on a decision not fully developed. And that voice can open the doors to creative problem solving and a team synergy that can be hard to come by otherwise.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Comments.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
The Dissenting Voice
I often hear people, leaders in particular, talk about wanting to surround themselves with others who are different than they are. They desire a diversity of perspectives and do not want ‘yes’ men or women. They want individuals who will contribute openly to the discussions and problems at hand, express differing viewpoints, think outside the box, etc. I am sure these sentiments are genuine, but experience tells me that it is a lot easier said than done.
Being open to a viewpoint that is different than yours is generally an acquired skill. And being the dissenting voice can take a significant amount of trust and courage. It takes courage to raise your hand and point out something that you believe is being missed or, perhaps even harder, not being done in the way it should. There is risk in raising an issue that may be contrary to where the rest of the team is currently at or heading. You risk the ill-will of a co-worker or team lead. You risk being wrong and possibly embarrassed. But great teams and organizations take these risks and encourage them. They listen for the dissenting voice and find ways for it to be practiced and expressed wisely.
Doing this requires a high level of trust within the team and organization. It requires a culture that truly allows for diversity in its best forms and one where being wrong is not a career limiting move. All of this takes a significant investment, but it is well worth it. Among many other things, the dissenting voice may save the team from wasting significant time and resources on a decision not fully developed. And that voice can open the doors to creative problem solving and a team synergy that can be hard to come by otherwise.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.