From Conflict to Consensus: Navigating Team Dynamics - ep 193

Julie South [00:00:04]:
You're listening to the Vetstuff podcast, where veterinary professionals can top up their resilience tanks, get their heads screwed on straight, and get excited about going to work on Monday mornings. Again, this is episode 193 and I'm your show host, Julie south, certified disc trainer and resilience coach. In our last episode, we delved into the concept of quiet quitting and how it differs from disengagement. If you missed it, then go back and listen to that episode as it kind of sets the stage for today's topic. And today we are going to explore the art of reaching consensus with your discussions with your team. Reaching consensus is crucial for creating and having great teams and workforces because not having it severely impacts both the efficiency and the morale of your clinic. By the end of this episode, you'll have some practical and straightforward strategies, plus some best practice questions to help you reach consensus so that everyone's still talking and and respecting each other. You'll understand why, when it comes to getting consensus, assumptions are better than beliefs.

Julie South [00:01:33]:
You'll be armed with three best practice questions to ask to keep your consensus reaching on track, especially when it looks like heels might start to be digging in or dug in and people are starting to fold their arms when things are stalling. And you'll hear how different personality types on your team might resist consensus and how to help them overcome this resistance. So stay tuned. There's more to reaching consensus than just getting everyone to agree. It's about ensuring that all team members, everyone, feels heard, valued and committed to the final decision that's reached. If you manage to strong arm everyone into agreeing, even when they don't want to, they're likely to disengage or quiet quit, which is what we talked about over the last couple of weeks. And maybe, just maybe, they may even sabotage whatever it is you're trying to achieve. Strong arming isn't reaching consensus.

Julie South [00:02:47]:
It's called bullying. And that's not what this is all about. Now, given that, hopefully we all want diverse teams because we get lots of different backgrounds, ideas, opinions and viewpoints when we have diverse teams, it means that the flip side of such diversity means that sometimes going for consensus can be somewhat challenging because of this diversity. And it's where opinions and perspectives could be at each end of whatever spectrum it is that you are trying to work through whichever consensus you are trying to achieve, you could have people at each end of that scale. So how can you create a space where consensus isn't only possible, but it's also a natural part of your team's decision making process. Well, here are three strategies to help you get started. The first is you need to create a safe space for open conversations. I've lost count.

Julie South [00:03:58]:
You probably have two if you've been listening to me for a little while. I've lost count of the number of times I've talked about having a psychological safety within and on a team. That's where everyone feels safe and comfortable sharing their opinions and ideas without fear of judgment or retribution. You get this by actively listening, by showing empathy, which is walking moons in other people's moccasins. When you validate everyone's contribution and you set rules for respectful communication. A rule could be, for example, like any one person talks at once or no one laughs at anyone else's input. It sounds pretty obvious, but you need to create a safe space first. Then you need to set clear objectives.

Julie South [00:04:52]:
Before you start discussions, it's important to ensure that everyone understands what the goal is and that you're all on the same page, the goal being the outcome of the meeting or the decision making process. This helps keep the conversation focused and productive. For instance, if your team is deciding on a new policy, outlining the specific outcomes hope to be achieved can help everyone stay on track and guide the conversation and the discussions. And then the third one is you need to consider and encourage everyone's perspectives. Diverse perspectives diversity of thought is a really powerful asset when it comes comes to decision making. Encouraging team members to share their unique and different perspectives and experiences leads to innovation. It leads to different ideas. You can do this by using techniques like round robin discussions.

Julie South [00:06:00]:
You go around the table where everyone puts their bit in and or anonymous idea submissions. Now, these are two ways that you can ensure that everyone gets an equal chance to contribute. So those are three top strategies. You create a safe space, you set clear objectives and you encourage everyone's opinions. Now, these not only help in reaching consensus, but they also ensure that all your team members feel heard, valued and committed to the final decision. Now, let's say you're still stuck. What do you do then? To help keep things moving along and forward, you need to ask good questions. Find out what's keeping people stuck or what the hurdles are that they need to get over.

Julie South [00:07:00]:
Good questions give good answers. Here are three best practice questions that you can ask. The first one is all about clarifying the objective. Ask yourself and your team what's the ultimate goal we're aiming for? What are the key outcomes that we're expecting to achieve? It's crucial that everyone is on the same page and that everyone shares the same clear and shared vision so that you can guide your decision making process. If you don't know where you're going, any path and anything will get you there. Next, you need to talk about and support encouraging diverse viewpoints. Diversity. We've talked about this before and this is where you invite everyone to share their thoughts.

Julie South [00:07:58]:
Ask what's your opinion, your perspective, your view, whatever your word is on this. And then how do you see this decision impacting your role or the team? Remember, every voice adds value. Every voice can help deepen everyone else's understanding of the situation. And then finally, you need to ensure that you've got everyone's commitment. I know this sounds obvious and this is where you check in with each other and you ask, are you comfortable with this decision, with this outcome? And then when you've got that, what support or resources do you need to make sure that this can work? It's all about making sure that everyone is on board and ready to take the next steps in the action, whatever that is, together. So there you have it. Remember that you need to clarify the objectives, encourage and support everyone's different and diverse opinions and perspectives and views, and ensure that you have everyone's commitment. Okay, so let's say that you've just done those last three things.

Julie South [00:09:16]:
You've clarified objectives, you've encouraged and supported everyone's diverse perspective and you've got everyone's commitment. Well, what say you are still stuck. You're at an impasse and you're going round and round in circles. What then? Well, here are three things that you can do if and when you find yourself seemingly getting nowhere. The first thing is to designate a decision maker. You assign a final decision maker and this is often the team leader or the manager. If this is a board meeting, it would default to the chair. This is the person who will consider everyone's views and make the best decision for the team.

Julie South [00:10:04]:
They should also be able to communicate the reasoning and the rationale behind their decision to make sure that there is transparency and trust going forward. Appointing a decision maker makes it practical and it's an efficient way of ensuring that decisions are made and reached in a timely manner so that things get done and that all viewpoints are considered and things. Your decision, whatever it is, can move forward. Your team can move forward. If you don't want to do that, then something else you can do is implement a trial period. If your team is still divided, then opting for a trial period for the proposed solution could be beneficial. This means that your team can test the decision in practice while testing and measuring whatever it is before making a final commitment. Obviously, clear criteria needs to be set for determining what success and are you success in air quotes, what success looks like.

Julie South [00:11:19]:
And a follow up meeting should be scheduled to talk about the results. So this trial strategy period, it actually allows for the decision, like I said just now, to be tested in real life before it's set in stone. Which means that everyone can see the potential impacts of a decision in a real world context. And doing this can help alleviate concerns and or objections or, and, or with all of those. With those two, you can seek external input. An outside perspective can sometimes help break the impasse. This could include an external expert. It could include a mentor or an even another team within your clinic.

Julie South [00:12:13]:
It can bring this person, this team. The external input can bring fresh insights and ideas into whatever it is that you've reached the impasse about. You'll get to see new angles to look at. It can help your team see whatever it is through yet a different lens. It means that you'll get freshly introduced ideas. Now, they may challenge some existing ones. It will also help, hopefully stimulate new discussions that maybe, just maybe, lead to a fantastic resolution no one thought was possible before the third party. The outside view was brought in.

Julie South [00:13:03]:
Focusing on assumptions rather than beliefs is another useful technique for keeping things moving forward in having productive, creative and innovative discussions. But why should you focus on assumptions rather than beliefs? Well, assumptions are flexible and they're open to change based on new evidence or perspectives. They're less emotionally charged, which makes it easier to discuss and challenge them without personal conflict. It means that you're more likely to have a more inclusive and a more participatory discussion, as assumptions can be collectively examined and tested. So how do you use this technique? What do you do? Well, you start by identifying and stating the assumptions underlying arguments or proposals. You encourage everyone to share their assumptions as well, and this helps to uncover the hidden premises that might otherwise go unexamined. Next, you need to question the assumptions. Start by using probing questions to explore their validity and consider different scenarios where the assumption might not hold true.

Julie South [00:14:29]:
You're a scientist, you know how to do this already. You probably do this each and every day without even realizing it. And you do this because, you know it helps test the robustness of something and it helps uncover any potential risks. Then, when you've identified these assumptions, you need to validate or refute them. You may need to reconvene the meeting or the discussion. You may need to collect some data or do some research or conduct experiments to prove or otherwise the assumptions. And then make sure that you reframe your discussions by shifting the language that focus on assumptions rather than beliefs. You do this because it reduces the emotional attachment, the emotional charge, and it makes it easier to discuss and challenge any ideas and all ideas objectively.

Julie South [00:15:31]:
Finally, make sure that you leave the door open to regularly revisit and reassess assumptions as new information, techniques, research, whatever it is, data becomes available, and this ensures that everyone's thinking hopefully stays flexible and adaptive. Now, I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't talk about different communication styles and personality types. After all, remember that both Tanya and I are disc certified trainers. Disc trainers this means that we can help you grow your team and your people, because playing nicely together means that they understand each other. We can help you with that. So let's have a quick, top level look at how different personality types might resist reaching consensus and how you can help them overcome that resistance. For those on your team who make decisions quick and are driven by results and disc speak, we're talking about the dominance or the D types. These people on your team may resist group consensus if it seems to them to slow them down, or if they believe that their solution is the best.

Julie South [00:16:58]:
They may see compromise as a sign of inefficiency. So therefore, to engage them, you need to highlight the long term benefits of a well rounded decision and allow them to take an integral part in leading the discussions. Then you have your enthusiastic and your creative individuals who thrive on recognition. The eye types who influence they might resist if they feel that their ideas aren't being valued, or if the process seems just a tad too structured for them, they may also avoid conflict. To involve them, you need to ensure that their ideas are acknowledged. You need to create a lively and an engaging environment, and you need to use positive reinforcement. For those team members who value stability and harmony, the s or the steadiness types, they might start to resist if the process is confrontational or if it disrupts the team love, they may also fear causing conflict. Remember, they like things steady.

Julie South [00:18:10]:
To encourage these people, you need to create a supportive, non confrontational space and ask open ended questions, and you need to provide clear, consistent communication. And then lastly, the teammates who are the analyticals, the detail oriented people who value accuracy, the compliance, the c types, they might resist if they feel decisions are being made without enough data or analysis. They prefer a methodical approach. So therefore, to engage them, provide lots of detailed information, allow them time for their analysis and emphasize the value of their analytical skills. Let's just do a quick recap. Today we've talked about the importance of consensus within your team. We've discussed strategies to keep communication channels open about setting clear objectives and encouraging diverse opinions and different viewpoints. We've explored how to engage different personality types in the consensus process and to navigate how to navigate situations when consensus seems elusive.

Julie South [00:19:34]:
We've also highlighted the value and the importance of focusing on assumptions for more productive discussions. Remember that consensus is about ensuring everyone feels heard of, valued and committed, which leads to better outcomes and stronger team cohesion. I hope you found this helpful. Remember that Tanya and I are here to help you grow your people and your teams through improved communication and understanding each other. You can get hold of either one of us at Vetstaff dot Co dot NZ on the assumption that you did find this helpful. Can I ask you please to share this with your team leader or your clinic manager so that they can pick up some of the strategies and tips that will help your clinic grow? Thank you. Just ask them to visit vetstaffpodcast.com. this is Julie south signing off and inviting you to go out there and be the most fantabulous, resilient and empowered Howard version of you you can be.

Julie South [00:20:42]:
Until next week. Have a fantabulous week.