In my posts on Action Meetings (Posts 16 and 17), I spoke of the need to spell out the rules of the road when brainstorming so that ‘The Loud Ones’ don’t take over, and talk over ‘The Quiet Ones.’ This week I want to expand on this topic because it’s so vitally important.
Special Note: It’s vitally important because in no way does reluctance to speak out correlate with the ability to think – and we will miss out if we don’t attempt to draw out their ideas. Here’s an example…
One of ‘The Quiet Ones’ saves their hotel from bankruptrcy.
The Situation: Working with a hotel on Vancouver Island that was going under during The Great Recession of the 1980’s. We assembled all available staff – including housekeepers – to a massive brainstorming and action planning meeting (one of the first Action Meetings my partner and I conducted), to see if we could come up with ideas that would help them get turned around.
A member of the housekeeping team shared a brilliant idea – in broken English – that literally saved the hotel from bankruptcy. As it was shortly before Christmas, she proposed that they advertise in all the up-Island newspapers that they were offering Christmas shopping bus tours to Victoria – a shoppers paradise – with an overnight stay at the hotel, and mouth-watering Happy Hour and dinner specials. The idea was discussed, decided and underway within a week – with instant and tremendous success. Then it was followed by a Tour Guest Referral Program – with additional hotel stays offered to all shoppers who referred friends. The take up on the offer – and the guest referral program – was literally amazing. And I’ll never forget the awestruck look on the faces of the hotel owners as the housekeeper detailed her idea. It was an unforgettable, heart warming, moment.
Another ‘Quiet One’ turned a bank branch around
Back in Post 10 (Power is ‘with’ people not ‘over’ them), I shared another of my all-time favorite stories on this topic. I want to recap it briefly here because it’s such a great example of what can happen when we engage everyone in the creative Action Meeting process.
The scene: I was asked to conduct a customer service training program with RBC Royal Bank – a program I titled, ‘Relationship Banking.’ I was given three branches to work with as a pilot project. One branch was located in Oakridge mall – a huge and beautiful, upscale shopping centre that was undergoing a total renovation. Business was down roughly 50% among all the businesses – including my test branch – and our informal goal was to see if we could return the branch to 100% of sales levels achieved prior to the renovation. The goal was audacious to say the least – it was hard to imagine boosting sales (of deposits, loans, investments, credit cards, mortgages etc.) to that level, under these ‘war zone’ conditions, but we were all game to try.
One Idea changed it all…
We organized a ‘Pizza and Brainstorming’ action meeting after hours one evening. One idea, offered by a soft-spoken CSR in broken English, would have the greatest impact of all. She said there were at least 24 languages spoken at the branch, and suggested that we create posters listing them, and offering customers appointments with team members who spoke their language. Everyone roared their approval.
The posters were produced immediately and word of the program spread rapidly – in the neighborhood, and beyond. And the response was immediate. Not only did the branch see a rise in sales, this ‘spark of genius’ (as the manager called it), not only increased sales among existing customers, it also attracted new customers – the key to achieving that ‘impossible goal’ of a 100% rebound in sales. Another heart-warming success – brought to us by ‘The Quiet Ones.’
Things we can do to ensure full participation
- Create a safe environment
- Establish ground rules – Number One: No criticism or shooting down of ideas during brainstorming
- No behaviors that could intimidate ‘anyone’ – no sarcasm, cynicism, cheap shots, ridicule, gotcha’s, etc., during the entire meeting
- No interrupting; and no taking over or talking over
- Work with team members individually – meet with outspoken individuals and ask for their help in creating and maintaining a safe and productive environment
- Specifically, ask them to respect your requests to ease off if they do try to take over
- Also meet with quiet ones individually; let them know how much you value their input
- Mix group brainstorming with individual contributions by playing ‘The write-down game’(Provide note pads and ask everyone to write down one or two ideas that haven’t yet been presented. Then go round-robin, asking each to read out their ideas – and asking others to share new ideas that come to their mind as ideas are read aloud. This is a powerful way not only to draw everyone out, but also to generate lots of new material when it may have seemed that we were out of ideas). For some reason, the act of writing things down privately stimulates creative thinking.
- Meet with quieter team members individually after your action meetings, to acknowledge their contributions, check on comfort levels, ask if they have any other suggestions to add – and address any issues they may have
- Meet with outspoken members individually as well and acknowledge their cooperation
- Don’t limit brainstorming to action meetings – take every opportunity to use the technique whenever creative thinking is needed. The more familiar your quieter people become with the process, the more they will expand their comfort zone – and their personal capacity – their inventory of valuable and transferable skills.
Obviously, as leaders we need to ensure the full participation of each and every team member – not just in our action meetings but in all our other meetings and interactions as well. But the vast majority of leaders I worked with over the years treated ‘The Quiet Ones’ puzzle as something to sigh about – not to solve. If finding ways to unleash the power of participation is among your leadership challenges I hope these tips and tricks will help you achieve a break-through. Oh, and don’t be shocked if a former Quiet One morphs into becoming a Louder One – and starts taking over, and talking over, the other Loud Ones. Ah, the price of success.
See you next week.
Neil
