Constructive interactions – How to disagree productively

[Gaetane Lenain]

I thought of this exercise when watching this inspiring Ted Talk about the art of debate, by Julia Dhar.
“The way that you reach people is by finding common ground. It’s by separating ideas from identity and being genuinely open to persuasion.”

Here is an idea of an exercise to facilitate a debate session with your team.

1. Select the topic:
A source of disagreement, a challenge to address, a problem to solve or the draft of a project that the team wishes to explore.

2. Name the various point of views:
If your team is in the first stage of a new project and is attempting to choose the best path to realize it, you might consider facilitating a separate brainstorm session and use this exercise once the list of ideas is shortened.
Follow the classic rules of brainstorming (no “but”, no judgement, welcome all contributions).

Select the main ideas to debate: 2 to 3 different points of views/opposite ideas. Write down the ideas on separate pieces of paper.

3. Find the common ground:
What can everyone agree on? Hopefully, it involves a link to the team’s mission, the impact that this project or resolution will have on the team’s performance or the team’s goals. Capture this common goal on a flip chart (or other visual mean) so you can refer to it if necessary.

4. Designate a champion for each idea:
It can be the persons who came up with the ideas. Ask the champions to think about this question: “What would it take to change my mind?”
Depending on how comfortable this team is, you could ask each champion to actually defend the other’s idea!
Ask the rest of the team to facilitate the discussion: ask the questions, summarize, capture the main points on the flip chart,… This obviously increases the autonomy of the team when facing sensitive topics in the future.

5. During the debate, refer to the common ground when necessary, help the team expand this common ground with the points on which everyone agrees.

6. Conclude by asking the team what they take away from the exercise and move to an action planning session based on the results of the discussion.

7. Congratulate the team for having a Productive Debate 

[MelissaDawn]

Love the idea of asking each champion to actually defend the other’s idea! Thank you for sharing :-)

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