I have recommended that team leaders set objectives through a team discussion. At a minimum, you should ask the team about their understanding of the objective.
But team leaders still report their team is not “on the same page”. They reformulate what the team said – and everybody seems to agree. But at the design review, they find that not all was clear to everybody.
What gives?
Reformulation as a means of checking understanding is a bit like going to the fair and standing between two funny mirrors that face each other: your image gets distorted a bit more with each back and forth reflection.
Are you sure you understood what the team member said? And are you sure they understood that you understood? Is there a way to break this cycle?
When discussing objectives, you want to be on the same page. The “little voice in your head”, which is commenting on everything you hear, looks for agreement – and finds it. Then you reformulate, and they want to hear that you understood them. So they find agreement. And we’re a happy family…
I understand your understanding of my understanding as a confirmation of what you meant. Meeting adjourned, let’s start!
I for one, no longer trust myself to understand correctly. So I make sure to break the hearing – interpretation cycle. There’s a very simple way to do that:
Listen with a pencil!
When a team member is speaking I write down the key points they say – exactly as they say them – with their own words. My little voice finds this so boring, it gets out of the way. Writing down what they say means I hear what they say.
I split the listening process into 4 steps: Write – Regurgitate – Clarify – Reformulate.
- Write down key words exactly as said by team members.
- Regurgitate by reading back to them what you wrote,
- and immediately asking clarification questions
- Finally, Reformulate by sharing your understanding, and ask if it is correct.
From the coaching file:
Team member: “We plan to prove there are no technical gaps in the customer requirements”
(Leader writes: “Prove”, “technical Gaps”)
Leader: (regurgitating then clarifying) “When you say ‘Prove no technical gaps’, what do you mean by Gaps?”
Team Member: “A technical gap is when there are two customer requirements that conflict with each other.”
(Leader writes: “conflict”)
Leader: (regurgitating) “So at the end of the task, you will prove that there are no client requirements that conflict with each other?”
Team member: “Exactly”
Leader: (now sharing her interpretation) “So I guess your objective is to make sure we don’t end up with requirements that we cannot implement because one says black and the other says white, for example.
Team member: “That’s exactly it – That’s one of the biggest problem we get, so we need to get rid of it at the beginning”
Team Leader: (adding further interpretation comments) “I agree. But a first, I was confused by the word ‘gap’ – I thought you meant ‘holes’ in the customer requirements –you know, something missing.”
Team member: “Oh no, that’s a ‘completeness analysis’ – that’s a separate task.”Note: when I heard this exchange, I too was confused: my little voice had interpreted “gaps” to mean something missing – not conflicting. It’s a good thing the team leader did not let her little voice assume that she had understood.
Why should you do this?
The obvious benefit of listening with a pencil is that it stops the “little voice in your head” so you can really hear what is said – and take time to understand.
But it also makes it clear to the team whether you are stating your opinion or simply echoing what you think they said, trying to understand them. Thus, the following cannot occur:
From the coaching file:
- (Leader) “So I understand that you want to perform tests that exercise every possibility of error.”
- (Team member) “That’s not what I said!”
- (Leader) “Well that’s what I heard.”
Let’s face it; we don’t listen well at the best of times. When we have an agenda, our listening is skewed. Our mind is too busy trying to decide if what they say is in agreement with what we think. It can’t focus on what is said and what is actually meant.
Listen with a pencil. Read back what you heard – without the little voice getting in the way. Then discuss what it means – with the whole team – to get on the same page.
