Leading a committee will put a number of paradoxical demands on you-most noticeably, that you must move the committee toward a specific goal, and do so in a way that members are active in this movement. Leaders who attempt to lead by using directives usually find that they have assumed the lion's share of the decision making, and have squandered the collective problem-solving power of the committee, making such a committee in effect one problem solver with a staff of assistants who provide information and carry out delegated tasks. Obviously, this defeats the purpose of using a group to accomplish the meta-goal. Productive processes usually deteriorate further as members become frustrated. Directive leaders are usually trying conscientiously to perform their leadership responsibilities. In fact, being conscientious might well be a contributing factor to their leaping in with a directive and cutting off the collective problem-solving process. A committee can be led by guiding. You guide by posing concisely stated problems, employing focused exercises, and using effective information-gathering techniques.
Guiding By Posing A Problem: A statement of the problem initiates discussion and sets the limits for its direction. To develop the proper statement, you need to carefully think through the meta-goal that the committee was formed to accomplish, and then determine the most productive and appropriate problems for each session. Leaders who skip over preparatory analysis usually find themselves ad-libbing, and derail the committee. Much time can be lost in irrelevant discussion and getting back on the track.
In preparing a problem for discussion, you need to consider several issues. First, the problem must be related to the accomplishment of the meta-goal. Suppose a company has had several burglaries in the past year. The board of directors may be curious about the factors that contribute to an increase in crime, but these issues are of indirect concern. Of more immediate concern is the question, "What steps should be taken to protect the plant at night?" Second, the problem should be one that the committee is competent to solve and for which it can make a workable decision. The board may be intellectually stimulated by discussing the personality profile of burglars, but an in-depth analysis of such problems should be left to psychologists. Similarly, for the board to make decisions about how society should be restructured to prevent crime would be equally unproductive.
Once you have identified a problem (or a series of problems), the wording of the presentation is important. Present the problem as a question. By definition, questions call for answers and elicit discussion. Limit the question to a single problem; a question that poses several problems at once creates confusion and diffuses the focus of the discussion. The question should be phrased so that it is open-ended. Discussions on closed questions that can be answered with "yes" or "no" die quickly, leaving you faced with generating another problem question. State the question clearly to avoid vagueness. What is meant by the question, "Should the firm adopt a policy of democratic management?" A vague question makes the discussion out of focus from the beginning.
The wording of a question should also be unambiguous. Ambiguous wording invites quibbling over definitions and deflects problem-solving discussion, whereas a concisely stated question focuses the group on the important issue. State the question succinctly. Members become discouraged and confused by such questions as, "Would an increase in benefits or vacation time and a restructuring of the salary scale be effective motivators, or are these proposals just impractical measures that sound good superficially?" Finally, questions should be impartially worded. They should not suggest your bias or the outcome that you desire. A biased or leading question such as, "Should we discontinue our union contract?" can be reworded to be impartial: "What are the pros and cons of having a union contract?" To summarize, begin the guiding process by posing a problem question that focuses on a specific issue and is worded clearly and impartially.
Guiding With Focused Exercises: Leaders of "growth" or "awareness" groups frequently use focused exercises. While participating in the exercise, members perform a behavior essential to the group process or to the accomplishment of the meta-goal. Then the leader uses regulating techniques to encourage a continuation of the new behavior.
The exercise prompts the desired behavior, and leader reinforcement encourages its continuation. For example, suppose an awareness leader wanted members to express positive and negative feelings toward others in the group as one step in accomplishing the meta-goal of self-awareness. To simply instruct the group to express feelings probably would not work. Members may feel intimidated or not know how to talk openly about their feelings and reactions. With a series of focused exercises, the leader could guide them in small steps to learn to be comfortable when expressing feelings.
For example, members might pair off and share one positive feeling about anything with the other. The next step in the exercise might be to share one positive feeling about their partner. By participating in the exercise, members are guided through the process of learning to give and receive positive feedback, a behavior that most awareness leaders believe is basic to the self-awareness experience. As the members become more comfortable with the new behavior of giving feedback, they are more likely to do so spontaneously, at which point the leader would use regulating techniques to encourage continued feedback.
The same approach can be used in problem-solving and decision making groups. As leader, your responsibility is to guide the group toward accomplishing a specific task. You can start this process with a focused exercise: the development of group behavioral objectives. To do this, briefly explain behavioral objectives-what they are, how they are developed, and how they are used. You might use a prepared worksheet tailored to the committee's concerns.
After discussing the criteria for a behavioral objective, guide the committee (by means of questions) through the poorly stated objectives, and request that members identify and correct the weak points in each objective. You might guide with the following questions: "Does the objective state who will perform the objective?" "Does it state what kind of recommendations should be made?" (Closed questions, such as those beginning "Does it...?" can prompt members to speak up in a teaching situation.) "What would be an improved objective?" The structure makes it easy for members to participate appropriately. Encourage continued task-oriented discussion by using regulating techniques. Simultaneously watch for and reinforce behaviors indicative of trust, openness, and cohesiveness.
When you feel that members have a good understanding of behavioral objectives in the abstract, guide them with sequenced focused exercises into an examination of the committee's meta-goal and develop two or more long-range objectives to accomplish that meta-goal. Next, focus on one of the objectives just set and guide members in breaking it into agenda items to be accomplished in the next one or two meetings. You might also guide members in setting personal behavioral objectives for the task activities that they agree to carry out between meetings. It is a good practice to maintain a written record of objectives in the meeting minutes, for example, so that they may be used later to evaluate progress.
- The steering committee will make recommendations to the executive director.
- Each member will bring two new ideas to the next meeting.
- The affirmative action program will be reviewed for compliance with federal guidelines.
- The planning committee will gather statistics on last year's sales.
- A program will be developed to reduce turnover.
- The team will evaluate the success of the management training program.
- The policy review committee will review and update all company policies.
- Communication channels will be improved.
- The committee will investigate the causes of absenteeism in the shipping room.
- Members will evaluate the cost-effectiveness of employee benefits.
Selecting A Focused Exercise: Guiding with focused exercises is a technique that can challenge your creativity. There is no formula for developing focused exercises, and no one exercise is appropriate in all groups. There are, however, several principles or guidelines for the selection of a particular exercise. First, structure the exercise to elicit a small number of behaviors. Asking members to do too much too soon leads to anxiety, frustration, and failure. Second, use exercises that you feel confident all members can perform successfully. As members succeed, they usually become enthusiastic in attempting other new behaviors. A series of exercises that require smaller performance steps that build on one another is conducive to learning. Utilize the fact that success is self-reinforcing.
The third principle is that the exercise should elicit behaviors that are directly related to the development of the group process or to the accomplishment of the meta-goal. Exercises that teach members to set objectives or that teach group decision-making steps elicit behaviors that facilitate the accomplishment of the meta-goal. Exercises that guide members into sharing opinions or into giving feedback to other members facilitate the development of the group process.
Fourth, the rationale for participating in the exercise must have credibility for the members. For example, a relaxation exercise might enhance both the group process (because members are usually more trusting and open when they are relaxed) and the meta-goal (because members are usually more productive when they are relaxed). But such an exercise would not have credibility in all groups. A relaxation exercise might have high credibility in a "think-tank" group whose members must let their imaginations run freely, whereas it might seem completely inappropriate to members of the policy review committee.
A related principle is that the specific actions asked of members during the exercise not be threatening or embarrassing. An exercise that makes members feel uncomfortable will only inhibit the group process you are attempting to facilitate. The final principle for selecting a focused exercise is that you should be comfortable with the exercise and be able to convey the belief that participation will assist in moving the committee toward the meta-goal. If you do not convey confidence in the exercise, members will not participate fully and the behaviors you hope to elicit will not occur.
Developing A Focused Exercise: Carefully analyze the behaviors you want to elicit, then break them down into a graduated sequence. The analysis process is the same as that used in shaping. Begin by identifying several successive approximations of the desired group behavior.
For example, the desired behavior might be for the committee to employ the behavioral objective model for mapping out its path to the meta-goal and for evaluating progress. The successive approximations might be:
- To learn the importance and uses of behavioral objectives.
- To learn the criteria of a good behavioral objective.
- To discriminate between poor and better objectives.
- To convert a poor objective into a better objective.
- To identify an observable behavior.
- To analyze the sequence of behaviors necessary to reach a practice meta-goal.
- To set a series of objectives necessary to reach a practice meta-goal.
- To analyze the sequence of behaviors necessary to reach the group's meta-goal.
- To set a series of objectives necessary to reach the group's meta-goal.
Guiding With Questions: The most versatile and frequently used guiding techniques are probes, checkouts, and summaries. Probes draw out information, ideas, and opinions. A common error in using a probe is that it is addressing too broad an area. Such a probe can lead the committee to explore whatever aspect of the broad question that the first member answering happens to choose. The direction pursued may move away from problem-solving discussion, so that you must then interrupt and pull members back. This can be avoided by using focused probes.
If the problem to be discussed is complex, it will have many aspects. The danger is that the committee will become absorbed in a tangent that leads it away from the solution to the specific problem being discussed. Be alert to topics that, although related, do not con tribute directly to progress toward the meta-goal. When this occurs, cut off the tangent and follow with a probe that refocuses the group.
Use the same approach to prevent derailment by irrelevant facts or opinions.
Guiding includes clarifying what is being discussed so that there is no confusion about where the discussion is and where it is going. When members’ statements are unclear, use checkouts to help them make their comments more specific and to clarify words that might confuse, mislead, or deflect.
Summaries are an ideal technique to guide the transition from one phase of discussion to the next. Concisely review the discussion and follow this summary statement by, "Is there anything else?" to encourage members to present all their ideas. When no one adds any further comments, it is a signal that that phase of the discussion is complete.
Use summaries to review decisions that the committee has made. For example: "We have discussed several ways to approach the problem and we have decided to begin by examining as many alternatives as we can. Each of us will bring to the next meeting at least two possible ideas for the marketing strategy. Is that agreed?" If all the members do not agree, then you know additional discussion is necessary. When members agree, you can feel confident that a decision has been reached. Record the agreed-upon actions to avoid confusion and misunderstanding later on and to have a guidepost for evaluation. As can be seen, the leader simultaneously guided and regulated.
The problem question initiated and focused the discussion. The probes elicited suggestions and indirectly moved members through the problem-solving process. The checkout aided in clarifying a suggestion, and helped the member to be more specific. And the summary pulled all of the relevant suggestions together and signaled that the group was ready to move into the next phase.
