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Influence: Do You Know the Value of a Single Dissenting Voice?

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Group Influence Is Power

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It used to happen all of the time in publishing. I’d set up one-to-one meetings with key individuals to discuss product prototypes. They’d offer their candid feedback. I’d incorporate what I’d learned into the next iteration of the prototype and do it again, until I was certain I had all of their concerns ironed out and a strong version of the proposed product ready for review.

At the review meeting, the same people would gather to discuss the “final” version of the prototype. I’d begin by stating the history of how the prototype was developed, who had participated, and what sorts of input had been gathered. We’d walk through the features and benefits of the product and open the floor to discussion.

The guy with the most powerful voice would say something like, “I’m not sure that cover works for me,” though he’d loved the cover the last six times he’d seen it. The person next to him would tilt her head and say “It’s always bothered me, too.” And suddenly, the entire group was agreeing that the cover — which each of them had discussed and signed off on individually — was a disaster.

What happened?

Influence: Do You Know the Value of a Single Dissenting Voice?

Anyone who’s managed a focus group knows that they’re serious business and even with the most practiced moderator, the group can easily go off track – to offer up information that reflects something in the group dynamic rather than a true representation of how each individual thinks about a given question.

What happened in the meeting I described that made every person see the cover differently? How had the power of the group influenced their thinking? Did the individuals believe what they were saying? Had they forgotten their original opinion? Were not invested before or had they changed their minds?

What makes us not see what we see and know what we know when we’re alone become something different when we’re together?

I learned a little about this sort of influence a few years ago … from a psychologist who taught at Loyola University. “In the 1950s, Dr. Solomon Asch of Swarthmore College asked groups of students to participate in a “vision test.” All but one in each group were confederates in the experiment (the confederates knew what was going on). Asch was testing how likely individuals are to conform with a group opinion even when the group is obviously wrong.

The method of the Asch test:

The experiment tested number of confederates necessary to induce conformity. They studied the influence of voice to fifteen.
The experiment varied the degree unanimity of the confederates.

The control group, the hypothesis, and the results:

In a control group, designed without pressure to conform, only one subject out of 35 gave an incorrect answer.

Solomon Asch had hypothesized that the majority of people would not conform to something obviously wrong; however, when surrounded by individuals all voicing an incorrect answer, participants provided incorrect responses on a high proportion of the questions (32%). Seventy-five percent of the participants gave an incorrect answer to at least one question. — Wikipedia

The results indicated that …

Three or more people who see things differently comprise a powerful influence toward conforming.
Yet …

If out of a group, even only one confederate voices a different opinion, participants are far more likely to resist the urge to conform.

This finding illuminates the power that even a small dissenting minority can have. Interestingly, this finding holds whether or not the dissenting confederate gives the correct answer. As long as the dissenting confederate gives an answer that is different from the majority, participants are more likely to give the correct answer. — Wikipedia

What Does this All Mean?

Unconsciously we lean toward silence if our opinion differs from the accepted group belief. Silence, often interrupted as agreement, can be simply a lack of contribution. How can we manage against losing the honest voices that choose not to speak?

Often “teams players” are defined as like-minded thinkers — possibly because such a group is easier to manage. Yet leadership depends on free flowing solid information. If we define “team players” as having deep connection in maturity and values, we can reach for a range of world views and ways of thinking — inside the box, outside the box, bottom up, top down, intuitive, data driven, idealistic, realistic, risk taking and risk averse thinkers.

Valuing a dissenting voice can raise the participation of an entire team. Though the conversation might become more complicated, the result will be a stronger, more honest exchange of higher quality thinking. When differing points of view are respected trust grows naturally.

That single dissenting voice gives the entire group permission to see what they see and know what they know — the power of honesty.

Have you experienced the value of a single dissenting voice? Have you had to be one?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Would You Rather Have a Guardian Angel or a Devil’s Advocate on Your Team?

Filed Under Business Life, Community, Successful Blog | 15 Comments

We All Need A Check on Our Thinking

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We’re in a meeting. A problem gets set on the table. We start to brainstorm solutions. Ideas are forming. You find one that seems to have potential. It looks to be simple, timely, and meaningful. Just as you’re sketching it out, someone who’s been listening jumps in before your thought’s even finished to say, “Let me play Devil’s Advocate … ”

Once upon a time — in the 16th Century — the role of Devil’s Advocate was an appointment with a specific purpose to test the argument of elevating a person’s life to sainthood.

Today, we flattened the idea, stretched the usage, and made it all but frivolous. As Tim Sanders so aptly describes …

Today, we’ve taken this to the extreme. When someone at work has a new idea about a product or a process, we take on the role of devil’s advocate before they’ve even expressed half the idea. We treat them like idiots, posing objections to them in a tone of voice that suggests, “have you even considered the obvious?” We do the same thing at home. Our kid has an idea for a business and we go into skeptic mode, shooting down her enthusiasm before the food hits the table. In every situation, we don’t improve the way the ideator thinks. Research suggests that only authentic dissent (You truly think it’s a bad idea) can provoke a better idea. When you argue for the sake of argument, you merely bolster the ideator’s conviction as well as her feelings that she’s all alone on this one.

I’m convinced that the Devil’s Advocate takes more value than he or she adds.

Why a Guardian Angel Adds More Value Than a Devil’s Advocate

When you pose your next idea, would you rather have a Guardian Angel or a Devil’s Advocate?

That might seem a clever turn of a phrase, but it’s more than that. The difference is striking. One works to win an argument. The works to contribute. Take a look at the two.

A Devil’s Advocate …

The position of Devil’s Advocate is inherently negative. The role is to find holes in the proposed idea. Arguing for the sake of arguing easily can degrade into arguing for inconsequential details or arguing to show how clever the person presenting the argument can be.

The Devil’s Advocate breaks ideas. No value is added.

A Guardian Angel …

The position of Guardian Angel is inherently positive. The role is to find and fill holes in the proposed idea. Arguing for the possibility of what might work, while checking for risk, leads to dialogue that builds and molds ideas into useful realities.

The Guardian Angel strengthens ideas by adding value to them.

A Devil’s Advocate wants to save the business from harm. He or she deconstructs to identify anything that might go wrong. The quest is to stop a problem before something is lost.

A Guardian Angel wants to meet and exceed the dreams of the business and the customers. He or she deconstructs to find and fix the anything that might go wrong. It’s a quest to invent a new solution so that new ground can be won.

The Guardian Angel adds value. A Devil’s Advocate tries to ensure none is lost.
Which would you rather have on your team?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Get Off the Bus and Head Toward True North With Burning Desire

Filed Under Business Life, Community, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 4 Comments

Leaders Live Up to Their Own Standards

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It’s a story of politics at work …

Blindedsided by a Romulan Warbird

It was a Friday afternoon in a past life, as they say. I was working late when Dina stopped by. Dina managed a new editor, Marilyn, who also worked on one of my projects. We often conferred on Marilyn’s progress. I thought Dina had come in to add something to our discussion.

As a social person, Dina was part of a catty little clique that had opinions on everything. I avoided both the group and their opinions when I could.

Dina smiled sweetly as she came into my office, sat herself down, and offered some minor pleasantries — always her style. Then she dropped her cloaking device and hit me head-on like a Romulan Warbird.

“We’ve been talking about you, and we’ve decided that we don’t like you talking about people when they’re not in the room, . . . in particular, we don’t like you talking about Marilyn.” She proceeded to use a good twenty minutes describing everything that was wrong with me as a person, which included a sidebar on why no person on the planet could possibly stand to work with me. I should have seen it coming when I heard that lovely phrase, “It’s probably none of our business, but . . .”

I lived the word stunned.
As I sat facing rapid fire, I literally had to restart my brain to process the information. My thinking kept looping around the same question in amazement. Did she hear what she had just said? It was a full-out admission that she had been doing exactly what she was shooting me for. In my neighborhood that wasn’t fair. Add to that the fact that she was the only one with whom I had discussed Marilyn.

My brain was misfiring. The opening narration from The Outer Limits was being read by Rod Serling as Salvadore Dali painted the scene in my office somewhere in the far reaches of my mind.

This female sitting across from me was an editor and a manager. What had she done with the facts? The only plausible answer was: she had no use for the facts. Dina had been passive-aggressive since I’d arrived at the company. She thought that my job should have been hers. So I don’t suppose that she was predisposed to caring about the facts. I let her say her piece. It was brutal. I went home.

My natural response is to fix things. I looked for ways to resolve this. Every solution that presented itself had me giving up ground. I didn’t want her friendship, but I didn’t need to be bullied again either. It was a miserable weekend. It took self-respect to go to work that Monday.

Had I been wiser then, I wouldn’t have wasted a weekend trying to fix the un-fixable. I know now that even if I’d saved Warbird’s life, I’d be that awful person who’d somehow done a good thing. That’s how those things work.

Every now and then I hear about Warbird and occasionally bump into her at conferences. I always stop to talk. She always seems nervous. I like to think that I’ve changed. Maybe she will too. Then again, maybe she won’t. She’s still at the old company — in a job she got when I left.

Me? I’m long gone from there.

How did I get to be someone who worked with people like that?

I had changed myself to fit into the transportation that took me to the buildings where I worked in the jobs that I got because I mastered the right skill sets. Often I was bored and didn’t feel successful. I was managing not leading. I didn’t know it, but I was working for a paycheck or working just to work.

Some days I asked myself, “Am I good enough to be here?” and “What am I supposed to do next?” “Will I be on the bus that’s going from good to greatness?” I was on a path — the one laid out before me — but I had totally lost track of myself

Once I even said yes when the right answer was no.

Now I see that I’m not the only one who has done that…

Yet leaders don’t ride a bus to get from good to great. They walk their own path.

The more Ghandi, Oprah, Mandela, Catherine the Great, Bill Gates, Melissa Mayers, and Steve Jobs came to know themselves, the better leaders they became. They lived and lived up to their own standard of greatness.

True leaders do their own thinking –they know who they are and know that their true north comes from the inside. They own their values, skills, and experience. They are moved by a burning desire to build what they can’t build alone. That burning desire is what defines their path.

It’s not whether you’re an entrepreneur or working in a warehouse that makes you a leader. It’s whether we own our values and our path. Then we can contribute deeply and clearly to any business we choose to make part of our lives.

We become a leader the day we decide who we are, where we’re going, and how we’ll get ourselves there.
Who’d want to follow you if you haven’t done that?

What have you decided about yourself and your own true north?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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What Have You Done to Become a Leader?

Filed Under Community, Marketing, Successful Blog | 5 Comments

Following or Finding a Path 1

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Who are you? How do you make a difference? Sometimes it’s a natural talent. Sometimes it’s a skill. Sometimes it’s a core value or quality that speaks to our humanity. Always it’s a statement based in the strengths of uniqueness. Sharing that unique strength with purpose is what defines a leader’s path.

Are you an artist, great at details, exceptional math? Can you code like banshee or persuade others to do anything? Are you easier to work with or faster than almost anybody? Do you ever find yourself thinking that what you do well is something everyone can do?

Just because it’s easy for you, doesn’t mean that I can do it.

Leaders know their uniqueness and own it.

Sorting out and evaluating what we know about ourselves is a leadership task. As Warren Bennis said in his book, On Becoming a Leader … we become leaders the moment that we …

Becoming a leader is a decision and a strategy, not an accident.

Reflect a while on what Warren Bennis said ….

Leadership is first about leading our own lives.

Learning to lead ourselves is how we understand what makes a leader. People see that in our demeanor and we see it in other people. They recognize the unique value and strength that’s individual in each person. It’s natural to reach out as leaders to align our goals and build something that none of us can build alone.

What have you done to become a leader in your own life?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Does Your Business Embrace Technology Meaningfully?

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A Guest Post by
Matt Krautstrunk

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As bloggers we understand how important interacting with a community on social media is for exposure. We tend to refer to social as “new media,” however when you think about it, some of the ancient social media channels (Myspace, corporate blogs) have been around for over 7-10 years now. The progress that marketers have made on social media channels has almost pushed the medium to maturity, it’s time for corporate structure to follow!

Building Social Media Into Your Corporate Culture

Social media is being used by more and more people to accomplish almost everything from a job search to answering common questions. Just to reiterate how fast social media is growing. See below: According to Econsultancy

But in the B2B marketing industry, social media should extend deeper than just having a LinkedIn. It should be controlled internally and leveraged within each employee. Your employees can be used as vehicles to spread messages about your company’s products and services. With this obviously comes inherent risk, but since social media such a transparent vertical there should be internal social media policies in conjunction with your marketing strategy.

Social Media Policy

Companies are still trying to find a balance whether they should encourage or hide employee social media use. Everything from, the decision to associate your businesses name with employees on social media to governing social media use, social media policies can be laid out to leverage your marketing strategy internally.

For instance, some companies have requested their employees create a separate Twitter account that is strictly professional. This has two key benefits, one is the fact that businesses are able to gain awareness and engagement from each employee’s Twitter, and the other is minimizing the risks associated with standing behind an employee who tweets inappropriate personal material. Businesses should design a clear policy framework for how social media can be used to create synergies not catastrophes.

Improving Workflow

Embracing social media within your company may have some risks, but empowering employees with social media embrace can help your cause. For example allowing employees to tweet during workdays can improve morale and communication efforts. Strategically integrating tools to work within your business can give meaning to each of your departments, according to Charlene Li, analyst at Execunet (http://insights.execunet.com/index.php/comments/creating_winning_social_media_strategies/best-practices/more) , “Anyone can be influential with these tools. Salesforce.com has a new Twitter-like product and calls the people in the company using it, the “Chatterati.” “This internal social group is the connective tissue in the organization,” Li noted. “There is real value being created as people use these tools to get the job done.” Social media is a core element of these innovative companies communication technology, making their employees better, more informed workers. There is an opportunity here for collaboration in the cloud; your employees will have the ability to express opinions and suggestions easier than ever before.

One of the biggest challenges to embracing social media internally is letting go of control. Executives should embrace this technology meaningfully instead of fearing the repercussions.

_____
Matt Krautstrunk is an expert writer on document management systems for Resource Nation an online resource that provides advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs. You can find him on Twitter as @mattkrautstrunk

Thanks Matt! Great case for taking social media seriously.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.
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