What should we do?

The second of the “four big questions” in our ongoing 4 Questions and 10 Rules of Strategic Doing series. Catch up with the first big question here.

In April I traveled to Suzhou, China, to teach a group of students enrolled in UNA’s EMBA program. Class was held on two consecutive weekends, so in between my hosts made sure I got to know their historic and beautiful city and region, including the world-renowned gardens of Suzhou – really, large carefully-planned parks with natural-looking landscapes and many historic buildings that belonged to the original designer (often, a scholar). A big difference from American public places that I noticed right away is that the Chinese are not shy about telling visitors exactly what they should do – signs like these were everywhere, and not just in gardens:

In a country with more than a billion people, what might seem a bit intrusive to me makes a lot of sense – you really can’t leave it up to each individual to decide what they should do.

In a team or smaller group of people, things are a bit different. It’s not up to one person to tell everyone what they should do (although the team may be working within the confines of an existing plan or organizational mandate). Rather, the team itself should make the decision about what they should do. But there are still a few constraints that will make the team more effective.

How to use “what should we do?”

In the next rules/skills posts, we’ll have more granular advice about using this question in a Strategic Doing workshop context. But the question is useful even if you’re not Strategic Do-ing, and these guidelines will help you get the most out of this part of the conversation:

• It’s intentionally after the first question, “what could we do?” Make sure that the “should” is within the realm of what’s possible. This is where what I call “what if syndrome” is likely to arise. We attach conditions to the “should,” like having new funding, more people, or better political connections. Stay with what you already know you have (if you used the “link and leverage” skill, you already have some strong creative ideas).
• Don’t get sidetracked into one person’s pet project – often there’s a person in the group who, because they’ve already done some work or at least detailed thinking, can easily carry the day. It can feel to people as if it would be easier to just go along. Maybe it’s the right way to proceed…but maybe it’s not. Help the group think about what would really best serve their mission. If you have a framing question (and you should), this is a good time to remind the group what it is, and judge ideas against that.
• In the course of talking through this question, you should go from a few ideas to the best one to move forward with. Don’t fall in love with one idea at the very beginning. Having more than one idea to talk over helps the group see the strengths and challenges associated with each. There’s a reason that those home-buying reality shows make sure that the prospective buyers see more than one place!
• Make sure everyone is on board with whatever comes out of the deliberation – the team should be excited. People probably won’t be equally enthusiastic, and that’s ok. But everyone should at least be willing to try the idea out, and at least a few people should be genuinely enthused and eager to get started.

Action step: this question doesn’t even require an official team – we all make personal decisions every day that answer this question. Start noticing them, and use the checklist above. A family discussion about how to spend a school vacation is a good opportunity for practice. Even the discussion that happens inside your own head about what to have for dinner counts!

Learn more: the signs in China aren’t just about making life work for a billion people; they also reflect a particular cultural attitude about groups. Asian culture in general is much more focused on the collective than the individual (North Americans tend to be much less attuned to the collective). Especially if your team includes people from different cultures, consider how those differences will show up in a work team. The GLOBE project has looked at dozens of countries and their dominant culture, and you can explore what the implications are, by country, on its website. Warning: it’s a rabbit hole you can spend hours exploring!