Negative Brainstorming | Reality-Based Toolkit
Summary
TLDRIn this leadership training session, Alec introduces a powerful tool for managing change within organizations. The 'negative brainstorm' technique is designed to shift focus from resistance to problem-solving by identifying and addressing potential risks associated with changes like software updates. Leaders are guided to facilitate this process, encouraging team members to voice concerns, assess probabilities and impacts, and collaboratively develop mitigation strategies. This approach not only fosters a proactive mindset but also enhances accountability and team engagement in the face of organizational shifts.
Takeaways
- 😀 The speaker introduces a tool to help teams shift their focus from 'why we can't' to 'how we could', especially in the face of organizational change.
- 🌟 The 'negative brainstorm' is presented as a powerful method to make the team's concerns visible and address them constructively.
- 📝 The process involves writing down all the concerns as they arise without disagreement, to make them tangible and less abstract.
- 🔍 It's important to get specific with concerns, avoiding vague statements and focusing on what can be addressed.
- 🤔 The facilitator should encourage the group to exhaust all concerns, even if it takes several pages, to ensure no issues are left unaddressed.
- 🛠 Once concerns are listed, the group reassesses them as 'risks', shifting the perspective from problems to potential challenges that need solutions.
- 📊 The facilitator guides the group to assess the probability and impact of each risk, focusing on how it affects the business and customers, not personal preferences.
- 🔄 The process includes eliminating low probability, low impact risks, and focusing on high probability, high impact ones that require action.
- 💡 After identifying key risks, the group brainstorms mitigation strategies, encouraging creative solutions to potential problems.
- 🗣️ Accountability is established by assigning tasks to individuals and securing verbal commitments for follow-up.
- 🚀 The negative brainstorm tool is emphasized as a way to enhance leadership effectiveness, promote action, and reduce workplace drama.
Q & A
What is the primary purpose of the 'negative brainstorm' tool discussed in the script?
-The primary purpose of the 'negative brainstorm' tool is to help teams shift their focus from why a change or decision is not possible or desirable to exploring how it could be implemented effectively, by making conscious and addressing the concerns and potential issues.
How does the speaker describe the typical reaction of teams when a change is announced?
-The speaker describes that teams often react negatively to change, focusing on why it shouldn't or can't be done, rather than embracing the change and looking for ways to make it work.
What is the role of a leader when faced with negative energy from the team regarding a change?
-The leader's role is to recognize the negative energy, facilitate the 'negative brainstorm' tool to make the concerns visible and specific, and then guide the team to shift their focus from the problems to finding solutions and mitigating risks.
What should a leader do when they notice concerns arising from the team about a change?
-A leader should stand up, acknowledge the concerns, and start writing them down without arguing or disagreeing. This process helps to make the concerns visible and specific for the team to address.
Why is it important for a leader not to argue with the concerns raised during the negative brainstorming session?
-Arguing with the concerns would only reinforce the negative energy and prevent the team from openly sharing their thoughts. The leader's role is to facilitate and acknowledge the concerns to create an environment for constructive problem-solving.
What is the significance of getting specific with the concerns during the negative brainstorming session?
-Getting specific with concerns helps to break down ambiguous issues into manageable concerns, allowing the team to focus on addressing each one individually and effectively.
How does the speaker suggest leaders should approach the task of assigning responsibilities after identifying risks?
-Leaders should identify the top risks and then ask the team for three potential mitigation strategies for each risk. Once strategies are proposed, leaders should assign responsibilities to team members, ensuring they commit verbally to their tasks.
What is the importance of the 'probability' and 'impact' columns in the negative brainstorming process?
-The 'probability' column helps to assess the likelihood of each risk occurring, while the 'impact' column evaluates the potential effect on the business or customers. This helps prioritize which risks to focus on and develop mitigation strategies for.
How does the speaker suggest ensuring accountability for the tasks assigned during the negative brainstorming session?
-The speaker suggests getting a verbal 'yes' from the team members as a commitment to their assigned tasks. This allows the leader to follow up on the progress and hold individuals accountable for their responsibilities.
What is the final step the speaker suggests after assigning tasks to mitigate risks?
-The final step is to follow up on the commitments made by team members, check on their progress, and provide coaching or support as needed to overcome any obstacles they might encounter.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of getting concerns and mitigation strategies on paper?
-Writing down concerns and strategies helps to make them visible, clear, and actionable. It prevents misunderstandings, reduces internal drama, and ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding the identified risks and their mitigation plans.
Outlines
📚 Introducing the Negative Brainstorming Tool
The speaker introduces a leadership tool aimed at shifting team focus from resistance to problem-solving. After a change or decision is announced, the speaker observes negative reactions and suggests using 'negative brainstorming' to make these concerns visible and address them consciously. The tool is exemplified with an organization's transition to Microsoft 10, where initial resistance is turned into a list of specific concerns, fostering a more constructive discussion.
🔍 Shifting from Issues to Risks
The speaker emphasizes the importance of reframing concerns as risks to change the team's mental process from passive to active problem-solving. By identifying and listing risks associated with the Microsoft 10 update, the team moves from focusing on why the change won't work to considering how to mitigate potential issues. The process involves assessing the probability and impact of each risk, which helps in prioritizing actions and aligning the team's efforts towards addressing the most significant challenges.
🛠 Mitigating Risks Through Action
The speaker outlines a strategy for dealing with high-impact, high-probability risks by brainstorming mitigation strategies. Using the example of potential bugs in the new system, the team is encouraged to come up with three actionable steps to address each risk. This leads to concrete commitments from team members, such as forming a pilot group, creating a FAQ sheet, and producing a tutorial video, thereby transforming concerns into actionable solutions.
🗓 Accountability and Follow-up
The speaker discusses the importance of accountability in the implementation of the brainstormed solutions. By securing verbal commitments from team members and following up on these commitments, the leader ensures that the mitigation strategies are executed. The process also reveals the team's willingness to contribute to the change and helps in coaching and supporting team members to overcome obstacles, ultimately reducing drama and increasing the likelihood of a successful transition.
🚀 Embracing the Power of Negative Brainstorming
The speaker concludes by highlighting the transformative power of negative brainstorming, which not only surfaces hidden concerns but also promotes a proactive approach to change management. The tool is presented as a fail-safe method to enhance leadership skills and improve team dynamics, encouraging listeners to adopt it with courage and confidence. The speaker also invites the audience to follow for more tools and insights, promising to support them in their leadership journey.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Reality-Based Leadership
💡Negative Brainstorming
💡Change Management
💡Mental Process
💡Accountability
💡Facilitator
💡Risk Management
💡Ego
💡Implementation
💡Probable
💡Impact
Highlights
Introduction to a top tool for shifting group focus from 'why not' to 'how to' in the face of organizational change.
The importance of a leader's role in rolling out changes and setting responsibilities.
Addressing the negative energy and resistance that can arise from change announcements.
The concept of a 'negative brainstorm' as a powerful tool for managing change.
An example of an organization transitioning to Microsoft 10 and the resistance encountered.
Leaders not initiating change to cause discomfort but in response to market or technological shifts.
The facilitation of negative brainstorming to identify and address concerns about change.
Writing down issues without disagreement to make them visible and tangible.
The importance of being specific when identifying concerns to avoid ambiguity.
The shift in perspective from issues to risks, focusing on expertise rather than opinion.
Evaluating the probability and impact of each risk identified during the brainstorm.
The significance of focusing on customer impact rather than personal preferences during change.
Prioritizing risks based on their probability and impact to determine focus areas.
Engaging the group to come up with mitigation strategies for high-impact risks.
The power of assigning tasks and gaining verbal commitments for accountability.
The revelation of group willingness and the importance of commitment in change management.
The facilitator's role in following up on commitments to ensure progress.
Encouragement to try the negative brainstorm tool and its potential to transform leadership and decision-making.
Transcripts
everybody it's Alec's store and I'm a
speaker and trainer at reality-based
leadership today I want to run through
one of our top tools that I talk about
often in my sessions to really help
groups get away from talking about why
we can't or why we shouldn't have to and
get focused on how we could specifically
when there's a change or when a decision
has been made by the organization and
you as the leader are just responsible
for helping kind of roll it out and give
responsibilities set and so oftentimes
when this happens you kind of lay out
what's gonna happen as a decision or as
a change in policy or whatever and you
just drop the news and what you see in
your teams instead of just embracing it
and saying thanks for letting us know
and let's make this thing happen you
start to feel the energy of the room
getting into oh that's impossible or
here's why we shouldn't have to and in
that moment you might be thinking I just
dropped a pebble into the pond and I
expect a little Ripple
and instead you get kind of a tidal wave
of a negative energy back and when that
happens it's a great time to realize
that the team is in a poor mental
process they're thinking all over the
place about what could happen and
they're getting into stories that are
probably not true and so your role as a
leader is to not bargain and plead with
them and try and talk them into it
is instead to recognize that energy I
want you to stand up and get into a tool
to make it conscious invisible so our
teams can think through it more clearly
and that's what the negative brainstorm
does it's one of our most powerful tools
and so I want to get into that right now
and so a simple example that I just
recently had in a session was that an
organization is moving to an update to
Microsoft 10 and the first thing that
was interesting about this situation was
that most people were unaware that they
were even moving to Microsoft 10 now one
thing to keep in mind is you guys might
know now after one of my sessions is
that these leaders didn't just dream up
in the middle of the night I want to
switch to a new software I want to
update our software to make everyone's
lives miserable that's not what happened
what happened is a change in the market
place a change in Microsoft has now fed
us a new decision in our reality and we
have
execute this thing and so what's
happening is as they're getting ready to
roll this out there's a lot of
resistance and they can feel the energy
from a lot of people going into here's
why we can't or why we shouldn't have to
or why it's going to be a disaster and
this is a perfect juicy moment to get
into some negative brainstorming with
the group and so let's go through this
example and I've started it here that
when you notice that energy I just want
you if you have a team meeting to stand
up and just say I'm really noticing that
we have some concerns here and I
actually have some concerns myself
because I want to make sure we keep
those top of mind and so what I'm gonna
do is I want to just make sure we
rewrite these down and so what you do is
take a piece of paper and just write
down issues and then start writing down
the various issues that are being said
some examples here are you know we got a
lack of training people need to get
trained up we have hardware
compatibility issues with the new system
we have to look at the timing of the
rollout make sure it's not in one of our
busiest times and so as the facilitator
you write all these down the last one I
have is scope expansion and now I want
to go through the things to keep in mind
as the facilitator they're very very
simple the first thing is you don't have
to announce that I'm gonna do the
negative brainstorm everybody so give me
a second and this is something I learned
that Alex tours I Wakemans training you
have to do any of that just naturally
casually stand up get something on a
whiteboard or a piece of paper and just
start writing I don't really say that
much number two whatever concerns come
out as issues you don't disagree with
them you don't argue with them you don't
bargain and plead or any of that you
just say thank you for sharing and you
write those down because those are
concerns in that person's mind and so
you don't disagree with any of those
concerns next make sure that the
responses aren't so ambiguous or so
general try and get specific so if
someone throws out lack of training for
example get specific on is it you know a
lack of time to do the training people
aren't skilled up try and get as
specific as possible and break those up
into concerns because we want to look at
each
specifically because our minds our egos
want to keep it really general and
ambiguous so we can't really focus on
moving it forward so remember to get
specific and so you want to do that
there lastly as you're listening you
keep saying things like anything else
why else is this not gonna work why else
is this gonna be a tough implementation
and make sure you exhaust the list this
can be two three four five pages and as
the facilitator don't get concerned
about that just keep writing
now finally you'll get to a point where
the whole group has exhausted all of
their concerns all the issues all the
reasons why it won't work and just thank
everyone for sharing their negative
brainstorm their ideas there and then
here's the point where we start to
switch the energy say thank you so much
for sharing I am so glad you actually
brought up these aren't issues but they
are risks
thank you for identifying all the risks
involved with our update to Microsoft 10
I'm glad we have them all up here so we
can look at it so what's happened here
subtly is in the team looking at the
secured mental process that we've
started we've gotten things visible it's
not under the spell of our ego where you
can manipulate all these things we just
started to change the energy away from
both issues and why it's not gonna work
which is really about our opinions and
our preference and opinions are trying
to stop the action now we're into wrists
which is using our expertise to identify
wrists and we're talking about how we
could get through this given the risks
we've found so we're starting to shift
the energy now in your own words or
however feels most natural to you the
next step is pretty key I like to say
something that I'm so happy we've
identified these risks now what I know
about change is that so often what we
fear is false events appearing real it's
not the change itself that causes us a
lot of stress but it's the stories we
make up about the change it's the things
we make up that could happen about the
change and so given that knowledge what
I want to do is check and see the
probability of each of these risks that
they will happen and so I want to write
a column here Pete
for probability we want to make sure
it's probable that what we're concerned
about is gonna happen and then lastly I
also want to look at if it does happen
what would the impact be on the business
now this is key many people want to talk
about what the impact will be under
their comfort zone on their preferences
but who are we trying to serve when it
comes to a change we're usually trying
to serve our customers our patients so
we want to make sure that we're worried
about and looking at what's the impact
on them and not our personal preference
and so we're gonna add a column I for
impact now that you have this all set up
now as a leader you just start looking
at them one by one and take your time
here it's like team let's look at this
first one we have a lack of training
when it comes to Microsoft ten what's
the probability that we have a lack of
training right now and you just listen
for the group consensus
now here's another key what will happen
is if someone set it oftentimes they'll
yell out right away oh that's high
that's a big deal but then start to wait
for the group because some people in the
group might be like oh well that's kind
of low actually we have a lot of people
already trained up or oh that's more of
a medium because we can easily train
people we got fast learners and so you
just kind of listen neutrally for the
consensus and make sure you get from
different parts of the room or the
meeting area what people are saying and
so let's say people started hi some said
low and so we just say would you guys
agree medium and you kind of asked and
most people are like - sure we'll go
with medium and then you say well what's
the impact if people weren't trained up
on the system what would the impact be
and they're like oh I think that'd be
high if they don't know how to use the
system and so you just take the
consensus you don't disagree with
anybody you might even know the answer
or you might want to negate it as a
facilitator not your role here you're
just taking the input and facilitating
next one we have some hardware
compatibility challenges now your IT
people might jump in and be like holy
cow it's huge issue and maybe we should
listen to them a bit more but let's wait
to see what other people say let's say
this one does come out high that this
could be a big issue now what's the
impact that it would have on the
business if
the hardware didn't merge together they
say that be high let's take that as the
next thing here now tie me to the
rollout people are concerned or we can
do this right in our busiest time and
say yes what's the probability that
that'll happen
now most people were freaking out when I
did this one about that the to mean our
busiest time I t's gonna decide to do
this in the worst time but now that we
get it out there and everyone has now
sees how somewhat ridiculous that is
everyone agrees that the probability of
them doing that at the worst possible
time was pretty low now what's the
impact it have on the business if the
timing wasn't that great they agreed
that it would be medium to low because
they could still get by and so we got
that down now now scope expansion they
were talking about how there's so many
options with the new system that you can
do so many things there's all these
golden features you could add in and so
what's the probability that that's gonna
happen and the group consensus was
medium now what's the impact on the
rollout if we have too many of these
they all agreed it was medium could slow
it down and there could be a bug in the
system now what's the probability that
that'll happen I just waited for the
group now my instincts as a facilitator
was the same we're getting a brand new
system from Microsoft they probably
thought about bugs but the group thought
differently they thought that you know
there's gonna be a high chance that
there's gonna be bugs in the system and
so I didn't disagree now they said when
I asked him about the impact that would
have on the customers the people we
serve they said that be really really
high really high we got a look at that
now people are unaware what's the
probability that people are unaware at
the moment that we're making this change
they actually said most no but there was
a few that were not aware so there was a
medium and then the last one here impact
they said it was low because we could
just let them know pretty quickly okay
and so now that you've done all of this
you do it for all three pages you're on
to the next step where you don't let
people off the hook now what do you guys
think you should do with the low low
ones the ones that are low probability
low impact if you have them most people
immediately
get it cross them out let's start cost
about let's say this ones down there as
well cross them out now look at what's
happening here we are really combining
this mental process we're narrowing it
down to see what we actually need to
focus on so now let's take a look what
do you think we should focus on most
would say hi hi so what I like to do is
circle those bug in the system these are
both hi hi given what we have here those
are the only two that are hi-hi and when
we did this we had two or three pages
only about four of these were hi-hi and
so the next step is where it starts to
get really powerful you say everybody
let's just do this one for example let's
say there could be a bug in the system I
say guys given this risk is a big one
that could happen in and have a big
impact on our customers what are three
things we could do to mitigate this risk
and you just let it sit we got everyone
in here what are three things we could
do and pretty quickly you guys will be
so surprised we go down here
someone will jump in and what I heard
when we did this they said you know what
we could do we could take a dream team
and start a pilot group they could give
the system a shot for about a month and
come back with great feedback on where
the bugs were I said perfect I write
that down it sounds like a great idea
any idea I write down and then I'm like
what else could we do they said well
given the pilot group we could come up
with a frequently asked question sheet
of like ten things that might come up
that you can be aware of when you are
using the system so frequently asked
questions sheet and lastly so much of
didn't said well I like making videos I
can make a YouTube video to show kind of
a tutorial of navigating the system with
most of the basics I thought that was
another idea to write down now here is
the fascinating part we have now gotten
into the top risks we now have three
things we could do to mitigate the risk
and so we're getting closer and closer
to moving to how we could with this
implementation
and then I didn't let him off the hook
here's where you going for the clothes
as a leader you know let's look at
number one a pilot group who out there
would love to take this one and try and
reach out to a few people to get a dream
team pilot group started and you stay
silent now in this particular session
what was so fascinating about this is
that when we got down to here no one
jumped in to volunteer and me as the
facilitator didn't panic I just sat
there and they still in volunteer it was
quiet now what does that show you about
their level of willingness throughout
the session there was some hints that
they were frustrated that their team
wasn't willing to jump in a lot of times
but what does that silence show you
about their own lack of willingness to
make this happen it was a big lesson for
the group they weren't all that willing
to help out even though they were
telling others are not willing and so
that was a good start finally we had
someone jump and they said you know what
I can take that one I'll start coming up
with a group that can be in our pilot
group to take this on about a month
before they roll out the final launch
date I say perfect thank you so much can
I get that list in a little bit of like
a one-pager from you by next Tuesday say
her name was Sammy Sammy says absolutely
I go can I count on you to bring that in
my next Tuesday
she gives me a verbal yes boom I have
commitment which is the first step in
accountability
I have something to cochon and follow up
on moving forward so I say Sammy by
Tuesday I think I said awesome a
frequently asked question sheep I know
could anybody get that started first
what anybody would like to take that one
well it was funny about this is someone
in IT jumped in and said we already have
that done we're planning for that it's
already done I go oh my goodness thank
you Jim for being on that now the power
of this is I knew that was probably
being done but if you don't put it on
paper the rest of the group has no idea
and it becomes drama in their heads and
so getting that out loud and looking at
this now the group's seen that I t's
working on some of these challenges they
start to not be so fearful and sort of
already on it I say Jim can I get that
final her first proposal first draft of
it - to me by next Thursday Jim's like
absolutely it's already done
and so I say Jim by Thursday can I count
on you get the verbal yes last one a
tutorial video that that was a great
idea and they thought that was funny
until I started to say who would like to
take that one and I let people know who
would like to take that one and no one
really wanted to jump in and so then
finally someone said you know what I
think I could do one on my iPhone it
wouldn't be the best but I think it
would help people at least see that
we're trying I said perfect you know
Steve sounds like a great idea can I
count on you to give that a shot it
seems like absolutely so I got Steve in
three weeks saying he will have a first
draft of a tutorial video look what just
happened there we have now mitigated
this risk we have assignments out there
and then as a leader here's the best
part
if you end with that verbal yes the
first step in accountability I can five
days later be walking around and have no
idea what I had people clothes on with
their verbal yes and I can just go hey
Sammy I remember our conversation what
did I have you working on last time what
were you committed to and if Sammy says
I have no idea that's not a very good
sign that she was truly all in to get me
a pilot group set up but if Sammy goes
hey you know what I was supposed to work
on a pilot group and it's not going so
well
well what else have you tried what
obstacles have you ran into I can coach
on that final commitment there and so
that is the power of the negative
brainstorm and what would I do next not
let people off the hook I'll say here we
go we're gonna go on to the next one and
we're gonna look at these hardware
issues and we'd go through those and
assign out some tasks whether it's to
look at other vendors whether it's to
look at who do we got to bring in for IT
support I would do the same thing all
the way through and what starts to
happen is you start to see the whole
group jump in and talk about how we
could and we start to narrow down how
hard this is truly going to be because
if we
put it on paper in the form of a tool
and I don't facilitate that guess where
it stays here in everyone's head and
they're out there to kind of roam in the
workplace with all this drama there and
so that's the power of the negative
brainstorm tool I want you guys to know
there's no way to really screw this up
because no matter what it really exposes
people's level of willingness and as
long as you just get it on paper it's
gonna get us closer to talking about how
we could instead of focusing on why we
can't and so give it a shot I believe in
you guys lastly if you guys liked this
tool or want some more tools follow me
on social media at Alex M door and reach
out I can get you guys some great
information and answer any of your
questions and you got this there's no
way to screw it up you get Mulligan's
you you will screw this up but only
daily I do as well get out there have
some courage and start facilitating some
of these tools I promise it'll change
your leadership and your life and let's
keep ditching the drama
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