Managing How Members Work Together

General Guidelines for Getting the Committee Running Smoothly

The goal here is to develop some guidelines or structure that facilitates the work of the committee - and does not get in the way. Often, simply paying some attention to these kinds of issues can be a big help to groups. These things seem particularly important:

• Designing operating policies and procedures
• Deciding how to decide
• Handling conflict
• Handling disruptive behaviors

Once again,

Getting the Committee to Develop Its Own Policies and Procedures

As early as possible, committee members should discuss the policies and procedures the committee will use. Getting these out on the table can head off some serious problems or misunderstandings later. Some things to consider:

• When will meetings be held? How often should they be? What type of meetings are needed? When do you NOT need a meeting?

• What ground rules will the committee follow with regard to such things as:
  • Communication among members (email? phone? when?)
  • Expectations about behavior (for example, what to do when members must miss a meeting or a deadline)
  • Establishing norms (for example, how will participation be structured? how will votes be taken?)
  • Using or not using Roberts' Rules of Order
  • How to deal with sensitive issues
  • How to deal with conflict
  • How to deal with potential red flags (for example, how should the committee handle a member who has trouble fulfilling commitments?)

Getting the Committee to Decide How to Decide

One of the most critical issues is to get the committee to discuss how it will decide. The general goal should be to provide some structure and rigor to the process. Most groups are solution-directed - people understandably want to get the task done and move on. Getting groups to focus on some structured evaluation can go a long way toward making them more effective. Moreover, it provides some structure to conflict and can depersonalize it a bit. Some ideas:

• Try to get the group to generate at least several alternative courses of action for a decision. If all else fails, indicate that the group must come up with at least 2 alternatives

• Try to persuade the committee to use some form of structured evaluation process such as
  • A simple 2-column method where members discuss and list pros and cons for each alternative and use that in making decisions
  • Assign someone to be a devil's advocate (it is better to rotate this role among members!)
  • Do a pro and con round robin where every member must state one true advantage and one true disadvantage for the alternative under discussion
  • For groups that have too much conflict, consider asking the group to adopt a time-limit for comments from each member
  • Suggest a "disagree and commit" decision procedure where members air all disagreements to the committee. But, the members agree to commit to the ultimate decision that the committee makes.

 

• Get the committee to select a decision procedure. This can vary depending on the issue and on the importance of the decision. Some common ones and the pros and cons of each include:

• Majority vote - an agreed-upon majority (50%, 75% or whatever) prevails

Advantages	Disadvantages
Easy Commonly used Usually viewed as fair All viewpoints weighted equally	Losers may be unhappy and retaliate later Some members may not be informed enough to vote on the decision at hand Coalitions and vote-trading may be encouraged

• Unanimous decision - all members must concur

Advantages	Disadvantages
Full commitment of all members Members tend feel better about the decision	Can be extremely time-consuming Some members can refuse to compromise and become roadblocks

• Weighted decisions - some members votes are weighted more heavily that others

Advantages	Disadvantages
Members with more expertise can have more influence	Can be extremely time-consuming Deciding on weighting criteria can be difficult and acrimonious

• Multi-voting - give each member a certain number of votes, list the alternatives, have members allocate votes and tally results

Advantages	Disadvantages
Allows members to allocate their votes Members don't feel pressured to vote for one alternative Can help reduce a long list of alternatives	Can be extremely time-consuming Members may feel the procedure is too artificial (especially if you restrict discussion)

• Criteria-based voting - committee develops a list of criteria for decision-making and members rate each alternative on each of the criteria

Advantages	Disadvantages
Allows a more fine-grained decision process Allows members to also develop criteria for successful outcomes	Can be more time-consuming that simple voting Developing list of criteria can be difficult initially

 

Handling Conflict

Conflict about ideas actually enhances performance but affective or emotional does not. So, disagreement about goals, plans, and alternatives is a benefit - if it is expressed constructively. But, finger-pointing, scapegoating, name-calling, and so forth can do some very real damage.

Your role is to encourage task conflict but minimize affective conflict. Some ways to do that:

• Have the committee set its own norms about dealing with conflict
  • For example, if 2 parties are getting heated, a designated third person will suggest a short break, then the committee will reconvene and use one of its decision procedures to help resolve the situation. Getting members to set their own guidelines allows input and develops ownership. Having defined procedures can be very helpful in defusing some situations. Be warned, however, that most people do NOT want to even talk about how to handle conflict. This can be a tough (but definitely worthwhile) sell.
  
  
• Encourage members to keep discussions focused on the work and to avoid personalizing things.

• Develop a group sense of priorities - which issues are really worth fighting about?

• Develop some strategies to encourage cooperation rather than competition:
  • Develop an overarching common committee goal and use that to appeal to the combatants
  • Beware of coalitions - using decision procedures can help minimize this
  • If using majority rule or voting for decisions, pay attention to the "losers." Try to legitimately find areas of agreement. If this is not possible, then a short one-on-one discussion can help smooth things for the future.

Handling Disruptive Behaviors

One of the best ways to handle disruptive behaviors is to have the committee develop guidelines it will follow. Take the time to do the following:

• Generate a list of potential problem behaviors
• Ask the committee to decide how it will handle the problems.

Some samples: