The Eight Key elements of Gathering followers to become New Citizens
When people become the new citizens, they:
- Become contributing members of their group
- Openly seek and encourage others opinions
- Accept that different view points are ultimately helpful
- Are comfortable stating an issue in their own words
- Express their views about an issue
- Are willing to experiment for a period of time with someone else's idea even if they don't agree
- Understand that all group members must support the final decision
- Are willing to take responsibility for communicating and implementing the final decision
Recognize that in creating and being open to new ideas, you must take responsibility to step forward and express your ideas. Bystanders have no place in a Shared Values environment.
This puts a responsibility on the shoulders not just of the group leader, but of each group member. The goal: a group of citizens who are contributing members who actively speak up.
Good decisions grow out of a process that begins with gathering information as a first step, and then seeking other people's opinions. Full support only comes when people understand what the decision was based on and have had time to be a part of the discovery process.
Once a direction for a decision is proposed, all those who will be affected must be brought on board. You must spend the necessary time at this in the building of consensus, or you will be forced to do it later on, to overcome the inevitable pushback.
Rather than detracting from the progress towards reaching a decision, different viewpoints can add spice and life to the discussions. Without these contributions, choices become limited and opportunities diminished.
Ask yourself these questions: Do I accept different opinions? Do I help create an open atmosphere? Would others say I am open to new ideas? Have I thought of ways to improve openness in meetings? Have I overcome rigid thinking?
In a group that's working together effectively, everybody participates. That doesn't mean everyone has to have the floor for five minutes at every meeting; it doesn't mean everyone has to offer an opinion on every issue that's raised. But it does mean that, over time, everyone in the group should be making regular contributions.
Though you don't need to have an opinion on every subject, when you do not have one, you have a responsibility to speak out. If you stay silent, you give up your franchise - diminishing both yourself and the organization.
A lot of people, feeling they may be unpopular, prefer to remain quite, claiming they don't have enough information to voice an opinion. The group needs to help these people understand they have an obligation to gather or become familiar with enough information to grow into a contributing member of the group.
On the other hand, sometimes people are reluctant to speak up for a valid reason: the environment may not be safe for voicing an opinion. When this happens, the organization needs to be open enough that people can speak about the problem and expect that changes will be made.
We have an obligation to express opinions, and to do so appropriately.
A lesson from the best organizations: people may have their disagreements, but once an issue is decided, it's whole heartedly supported by the entire group or organization. In the early 1970s, the Nordstrom chain looked at expanding from a highly regarded shoe store into women's clothing. (It's not so much the Nordstrom management success as its values that explains why it is so often used as an example in business books.) The decision to expand followed this very principle: one of the three brothers had a vision that included moving into women's clothing; the other two adamantly opposed the idea arguing," How can we expand into an industry that we have no real background in?" Yet, the one brother was able to ask the other two to experiment for a period of time.
The brothers joined hands in the effort, working side by side to make it work. In the beginning it was rough going, and it wasn't until the fifth year that they were enjoying great success. They had seen it through because two of the brothers had been willing to experiment for a period of time with something they did not initially support.
The real key lies not in making a decision - that's the easy part; the difficult part is getting the support and commitment to find out if it will work.
Even when you have been careful to build consensus, you need to be prepared for some pushback after the fact. Don't reject the pushback and objections; listen to them. However, you or your team is under no obligation to change the decision.
After you have listened, acknowledge the information. Then you have several options: You can respond immediately to the new ideas, modifications, or requests. Or you can reserve reacting to their comments, telling those who oppose your decision that you need to think about their remarks. Or you can ask them to support the existing with the provision that it is an experiment and if it doesn't work, you will be open to other approaches.
Once an organization is successful in moving away from the old mode where workers and supervisors merely carried out orders and ideas generated at the top of the pyramid, where employees were passive, compliant bystanders, the roles of communicating and implementing become essential.
Today, each member of the staff, regardless of their role, needs to understand why things are done the way they are - not blindly accepting the status quo but being a partner in creating an evolving approach to business operations. In fact, if enough members of the organization don't want to get involved, they become a liability to the entire operation.
Organizations can no longer tolerate the bystanders who remain on the sidelines, keeping silent but creating tension and mistrust.
From the book "Lasting Change" by Lebow & Simpson
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