Gauging Idea Support
One of the challenges of leadership is to know when an idea has buy-in from your team, be it a church staff, an elder board, or key team members. Having a sense of this is important in knowing how to move forward.
The challenge is that when an idea is floated in groups, there are two kinds of people represented – those who express their thoughts without prompting and those who rarely express their thoughts. If you’re not careful, you’ll allow those who do speak to speak on behalf of those who don’t speak. And you may start believing that the response of the verbalizers is representative of the entire group.
There are 2 kinds of people in a meeting: those who express their thoughts without prompting and those who rarely express their thoughts. If you’re not careful, you’ll allow those who do speak to speak on behalf of those who don’t speak.
And then there are times when most everyone speaks up. Opinions are exchanged about the idea, but you still can’t determine whether the group is for it…against it…or indifferent.
A New Show of Hands
I came across an idea from a man named Brian Dodridge who shared a simple tool used by his church’s senior leadership team to ascertain what the group thinks of an idea. By simply holding up one or more fingers to represent a number on a scale, a snapshot could be revealed as to the group’s feelings.
On a whiteboard, the following was written:
Love it – 5
Like it – 4
Live with it – 3
Leary of it – 2
Loathe it – 1
Then at the count of three, each individual would hold up their hand and represent their feeling about the idea with the appropriate number of fingers. A total would be made of the group’s finger count and it would be divided by the number of those voting.
For example, the idea might come out as a 3.7 or 2.1 or, on some days, a 4.9 (usually when asking, “Are you in favor of extra days off around the holidays?”)
Dodridge said, “I use this tool from time to time in meetings I lead, and when I do, I can usually tell if…
The idea already has traction.
The idea is going to require more discussion and needs to gain more support.
The idea is Dead on Arrival.
He adds, “I make sure the team understands whether this vote is simply asking for input or will determine the decision.” (To not make this clear will cause some to react negatively if action is taken to move forward despite their vote.)
A whole lot different than the typical “show of hands,” this is a simple tool that can allow you to gain real-time results during a meeting to gauge not only the relative viability of an idea but the amount of time it will take to get sufficient buy-in.
I encourage you to give this a shot. Even if you choose to move forward with an idea that not everyone is for, it at least gives everyone an opportunity to express their opinion. And that may be a “win” in and of itself.
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