Teams will take action on high-energy decisions. Action is less certain with low-energy decisions.
How do you detect a low-energy decision? What do you do about it?
After taking a deep breath, Emily said, “I propose that we create a monthly newsletter about our service offerings and send it to our clients.”
Her proposal responded to criticism from our clients about misunderstandings around our newest service offering. The proposal made sense.
During the discussion about the proposal, my teammates who spoke agreed with the proposal. I didn’t detect any enthusiasm in their responses though. I detected a similar lack of enthusiasm in me.
Emily said, “I’ll edit the newsletter. I’ll need some of you to write articles.”
I sighed. My schedule was full. But she hadn’t said that all of us needed to write articles.
I wanted to be certain about my interpretation though so I said, “My schedule is packed and I don’t have time to write articles.” and ask, “Are you expecting me to write articles?”
She said, “No, I only need a few people to write articles.”
“Works for me.” I replied.
We moved to voting on the proposal.
My team uses the Roman Evaluation Process to make consensus decisions. We vote on a proposal using one of our thumbs. We signify our agreement with a proposal by putting our thumb in one of the following positions.
- Up means “I agree.”
- Sideways means “I will accept the majority’s decision and support it.”
- Down means either “I disagree.” or “I have something to say.”
Emily had her thumb up. I put my thumb sideways. Six other team members put their thumbs sideways.
No one disagreed with the proposal so there is a team consensus to move ahead. Right? Wrong!
My team has used Roman Evaluation for years and we know our vote might indicate low-energy. Rather than move ahead with the decision, we discuss whether we have the energy to do the proposal.
Emily started the discussion by saying, “I’m not enthusiastic about the proposal either. If I voted again, I would put my thumb sideways too.”
After more discussion, Emily withdrew her newsletter proposal from consideration.
We started exploring other ways of responding to our client’s criticism.
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The feedback from Roman Evaluation will help you with early detection of low-energy team decision so you can discuss the low-energy and whether it is wise for the team to proceed with the decision.
Despite decisions making sense, the work associated with low-energy decisions may not get done. These decisions deserve careful discussion and management so the desired results happen.
If your team is having problems with detecting and managing low-energy decisions, I can help. Contact me.
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