You are what you read. That’s what an email from Harvard Business Review told me today. And I agree. We’ve discovered that what we read online feeds what is shown to us online, due to the clever algorithms employed behind the scenes. It makes it doubly important that we research broadly, read widely and think holistically.
Views of individuals are becoming polarised and people seems to not only be on one side of the fence of the other but on opposite ends of the field. As leaders, bringing people with polarised views together is a difficult task. I’m sure Joe Biden knows all about that!
For leaders leading the polarised, here are some thoughts on achieving success…
1 . Find the points of agreement. Move away from disagreeing about the detail to agreeing about the bigger picture. Keep going ‘up’ until you find it.
2. Determine the different skillsets available to you. Integrate the knowledge, skills, views and opinions from people with those different skillsets
3. Encourage critical discourse. Use tools like action learning to solve problems constructively, giving everyone the opportunity to share their views
4. Give everyone a voice. Use different media to illicit expert input, opinions, views and thought. Quiet voices and loud voices need equal opportunity to share ideas and solve problems
5. Recognise the point on which agreement will never be reached. Sometimes difficult decisions have to be made that won’t please all of the people. Sometimes challenges need to be put aside for solving another day