January 13, 2021
1 Leadership Thought
Okay, so you've done the hard work of running a great debate meeting. You've gotten the full picture because you included a large diversity of perspectives and voices in the meeting. Now it's time to set up the decision meeting. Here are three characteristics of a great decision meeting:
Designed for forward progress: You already had the debate meeting. There should be a clear agenda for this meeting that spells out the goal or destination of the initiative/project that you had the debate meeting for. Notes on the thoughts and perspectives from the debate meeting should be on hand. This isn't the time to re-debate everything all over again. This is the time to decide on what to do with the information you compiled.
Marked by fairness: You shouldn't have all the same people in the room from the debate meeting. This meeting is just for the people who actually have decision-making power. The weight of this is that the people in this room better seriously consider everything they heard, especially from the people not represented in the decision-making room. To make a decision that forgets about them is to dismiss the perspectives they heard, which means you were wasting everyone's time from the debate meeting.
Initiates clear and agreed-upon action: Remember that this is still a meeting. The real work gets done outside the meeting. Everyone should come away with a clear plan of action that is agreed upon. After this meeting, halftime is over and it's time to get in the game.
If you have been as faithful as you can be to the above three characteristics, what will have happened for your team, organization, and all the voices involved is you'll have given them dignity. This is important because it tells people that you really actually value them and that value will forge trust to persevere in the long run.
Our choices have power to dignify other human beings.
Children grow when parents choose their kid's needs over own wants.
Athletes flourish when their skills are utilized over being forced into a bad fit.
When we make choices that consider others, everyone wins. (Share this on Twitter)
1 Resource
Hal Runkel on responsibility to choices:
"We are not responsible for our children and the choices they make; we are responsible to them, however, for the choices we make."
Source: Screamfree Parenting: How to Raise Amazing Adults by Learning to Pause More and React Less
1 Question
Who do you know that can make that weighty decision on your mind better than you can?