Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

by Patty McCord

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER • What problem is your team working on, or what decision do you have coming up, that you could stage a formal debate over? • Having set the rule that people must state their case by marshaling facts, will you be prepared to concede that someone on your team makes a stronger case than yours? • Are there members of your team who have become too fixed in their views about an issue and whom you could ask to take the perspective of the other side in a debate in front of your team? • How well is your team set up to conduct formal testing of ideas and to obtain the data they need to draw strong conclusions? Are there any ways in which you could provide them with access to tools they may lack? • How can you help your people to consider data beyond the information that is familiar to them and that they know how to interpret? What biases might members of your team—and you— have about which data you should be considering and your interpretations of it? • Can you invite younger members of your team, and perhaps of other teams, to listen in on some of your debates? Could you or their direct manager coach them about how to participate themselves? • Can you establish a regular forum for the presentation of arguments about key decisions and the best ways to solve problems your team is working on?