A 'Concern'!

A few days back i received a call from a colleague. She said 'I was to facilitate a session beteween Leadership team and a group of individual contributors. But i might not be able to come to work tomorrow. Can you facilitate this session? I would help you prepare for it.'

I did agree and landed up facilitating this discussion between 2 Leadership Team members and a around 15 individual contributors.

There was a particular challenge/dynamic i faced during the discussion - 'When does one take up a 'concern expressed' for team/group/organizational level actioning?'

In the initial part of the discussion, I realized there were di-alogues happening in the room. One person was expressing a concern, while another person was responding to his/her concern. The concerns were being acknowledged, and many a times being taken up for actioning.

I found something amiss with this inter-personal dynamic. I thought 'How could a concern be acknowledged as a team/group/organization level action item without first being thrown around the room and debated?'

I subsequently made a conscious attempt to change the nature of the discussions. Every concern raised started getting thrown around to others in the room and debatd. I asked 'Have others had a similar experience? Has anyone else handled a similar situation successfully?'

The tone of the discussion changed. People in the room with differing opinions/experiences slowly but surely started speaking up.

With multiple people speaking about their experiences handling similar situations; we got a better sense of whether a concern expressed lay at the individual/team/work-group/organizational level.

It also made participants see that someone they considered 'their type' (and not from HR or Leadership team) had experienced a similar situation differently from the way they had experiened a situation. The face validity of possible solutions proposed was consequently higher as it came from someone perceived to be 'their type'.

What did i those who expressed concerns that were unique - not representative of a team/group/organizational level problem?

Well! I tried acknowledging his/her concern (s/he felt heard) but managed to make him/her aware that his/her concern maybe unique and may not be reflective of a larger problem. 'Feeling heard and acknowledged' seems to have a cathartic effect.

-

Sourav