Confronting different ideas can be a powerful way of bringing up richer solutions than those a single individual could uncover. However, debate can quickly become heated or even remain sterile. What are the ideal conditions for a productive debate?
Dare to confront ideas
Disagreements enrich the debate. They are healthy and should be expected under two conditions:
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Challenge ideas but don’t go into personal attacks
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Present your thoughts without imposing them on others
Welcome the challenge
Exchanging ideas might lead to a solution that had not really been obvious at the onset.
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Be ready to change your mind
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Withhold your judgment while the others are speaking
Value the point of view of everyone
Some people need to be encouraged to share their ideas:
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Devise a system for everyone to speak
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Ask open-ended questions
Take action
Practice asking open-ended questions (10 min)
Asking questions does not in itself enable a real dialogue: you need to make sure you resist the temptation to influence the response.
Listen to yourself during an exchange with a relatively low stake. Do you often use prompted questions, i.e. whereby you limit your counterpart’s possible responses? E.g.: “Does it…” (which calls for a yes or no answer); “Don’t you think…” (which rather calls for a yes); “Which of A and B do you prefer?” (maybe there is another option!). Make a list of the prompted questions you have identified.
How could you reformulate these questions to invite your counterpart to further his thinking or to come up with other options? E.g.: “What do you think about…”; “How could you…”; “What makes you think that…” Try and use these probes as much as possible: what is the impact on your counterpart’s involvement in the conversation?
Value everyone’s contribution during a debate (30 min)
The value of a debate lies in the ability to share different points of view. To achieve this, everyone must understand that they are not expected to necessarily conform to the dominant perspective.
At the end of a debate, whether it is happening during a physical meeting or through collaborative tools (online forum, intranet, …), thank and congratulate those that contributed. E.g.: “Thanks for sharing your points of view. I am happy that we had some real exchanges.”
Underline the value of these contributions, and how they enabled the enterprise or the team to move forward. Make sure however that you remain steady and sincere. E.g.: “Your contributions enabled me to look at the topic differently, to see new perspectives…”
Try to emphasize as much as possible the concrete outcome of these contributions.
In what mindset did you tackle your last exchange of views? Step back (10 min)
Confronting two different points of view to choose the best option can sometimes work. But it’s often through a free and investigatory dialogue that the best solutions for a complex situation emerge.
Remember your last interaction: what was your objective? Were you essentially seeking to convince your counterpart of the relevance of your opinion or did you try and understand his/her perspective to refine your own through a different angle?
In light of the time available and what is at stake, did you think this interaction mode was effective? Was the situation sufficiently clear that exposing the various options and preferences would suffice to reach a decision? Or did the topic in discussion need more time to clearly understand and enrich everyone’s perspective?
Were you to go through the same process again, what would you do differently?
Practical Tips
> Dialogue and debate: Two complementary approaches
> Encourage dialogue by asking questions
> Four methods to organize large-scale productive dialogue
Find out more
> How tapping into collective intelligence promotes employee engagement at Covéa
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