Debate, Decide & Commit
Margaret Thatcher said “I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone to just sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.”
I am 100% with Thatcher on this one. I aim to surround myself with individuals that will challenge me, share their opinion, suggest improvements or raise their concerns. While this open and candid way of working together can be challenging at first, in the end, a good debate can help surface the best decision.
What happens after a healthy debate is arguably even more important. After a lively debate in a meeting, when the team walks out of the room, no one should be able to tell where each person stood in the debate. That means no negative side conversations or water cooler chat undermining the decision. After the decision, we are a united team moving together with shared belief and conviction.
So, as we adopt a “debate, decide and commit” mindset at McKesson, here are some of my personal thoughts and expectations:
- Debate may feel uncomfortable at first... but it gets better! Once you start regularly engaging in respectful debate, it becomes a very normal part of how thoughtful decisions are made. And the value of diverse perspectives becomes powerful and clear.
- There aren’t “winners or losers”. In fact, there aren’t even teams – there is one team, going after the same goal together.
- Debate with facts and data. Bring more to the table than just your ‘gut feeling’ and anecdotal evidence.
- Keep emotions in check. Sometimes you feel very passionate about the topic at hand! But it’s important to remain respectful of others… and expect the same in return. Passion and energy is great, but so is good listening and open-mindedness.
- Strive for collaboration, not consensus. Embrace that in the end, there will be differences of opinion -- and that’s okay.
- Communicate the decisions, without sharing who had differing opinions. When sharing the decision, who had what opinion is irrelevant.
- COMMIT and embrace the decision as if it were your own…even if it wasn’t. Of course, if there are new facts to consider, the team may revisit the decision. But until then… its 100% buy in.
After many years of being part of a team and leading teams, I am convinced that when a group truly has a healthy and thoughtful debate, makes a decision and commits – as a united group – that’s when teams deliver the best results for the organization.
Are you using some form of debate, decide and commit in the workplace? What’s the most challenging part of implementing this concept for you and your team?
Engineer at Flex
2yit is very helpful to leadership and build company cultures
Department Manager at JC Penney
4yThank you for the much needed leadership initiatives you are bringing to our culture. Debating is many times perceived as being defensive or defiant and I do hope this new approach will be embraced. I look forward to future learnings and initiatives. Thank you for the leadership and energy you bring to our organization.
Security Governance, Risk & Compliance @ Pinterest
5yGreat concept but we need to think about how it will be executed. No meeting should be held unless a “decision maker” is in the room with the authority to commit. Otherwise we will have re work. It would be cool to see a simple template that could be followed as a guide to implement.
Student at University of Oregon
5yOf course you open the article quoting Thatcher. Ignorant and wicked people like you are an identifiable class, throw them all in jail to prevent future harm to society they will inevitably inflict.