Objections

If we are in a meeting, and we disagree with a decision that the group is making, as professionals we should assertively raise an objection. As raising an objection is essentially telling a group of colleagues that we think they are wrong, we must be extremely diplomatic so that people remain open to what we have to say.

When people have to make a decision by a deadline they are often forced to make compromises, which often results in the group's decision being worse than if the decision were made by a single person. This phenomenon is called "Groupthink," and tends to arise when people are trying to avoid conflict and maintain social harmony. Rather than raise objections to bad ideas, people instead go along with the group to keep the peace and at least have some decision made once the deadline arrives, regardless of how good that decision may be.

Imagine your team was tasked by executive management to come up with immediate cost-cutting measures, but only 1 hour before you needed to present your proposal, the team had not made a decision on what measures to propose. The reason there is so little time left is that everyone was fighting over whose idea was best, but now you all feel the pressure to come up with something - anything - in order to avoid having nothing to present to the executives.

You all decide to set aside your differences, be open to compromise, and to include aspects of each person's idea so that everyone felt that they contributed. When the time comes to present the idea, you are chosen to present on behalf of the team, and say, "We believe that the best way to cut costs is to combine all of our factories into one central facility so that we benefit from economies of scale, which includes removing redundancy in both machinery and personnel, as well as reduce the costs associated with transporting raw materials from one factory to another."

At this point an executive asks, "How much would it cost to build this facility, and how quickly would we see these savings?" In response, you say, "Approximately $100 million over the next 5 years, after which we would begin to benefit from the cost reduction." The executive then points out that a $100 million investment that only starts showing a return after 5 years does not constitute an immediate cost-cutting measure.

Groupthink is common in the business world, as there are often tight deadlines, and a strong desire to maintain workplace harmony, which has the effect of discouraging people from raising an objection to even obviously bad ideas.

The difficulty of raising an objection tends to increase the more passionate and committed people are to a particular course of action. If people are not very passionate or committed about whatever is being decided upon, you should assertively raise an objection, provided you have the appropriate balance of directness and diplomacy.

In our previous example, if people were not that passionate or committed to a cost-saving idea that costs $100 million, and you had an idea that had previously been rejected by the group, you might say, "I know that the idea of canceling the production of unprofitable products was not popular, but I do think it's better than proposing that we save money by spending $100 million. What does everyone think about proposing the idea of canceling unprofitable products?"

If people are truly unhappy with the current proposal, then they may be open to any idea that is obviously better.

However, if people are passionate that the idea of saving money by spending money is a good one, and are deeply committed to the idea that waiting 5 years constitutes an immediate cost-cutting measure, you will need to persuade them to change their collective minds. While this is by no means easy, to increase your odds of success, you might employ the Steelman technique.

The Steelman technique requires that we make a better argument for following a bad decision than anyone else can, at which point we raise our objection to our own argument rather than theirs.

Returning to our example, utilizing the Steelman technique might sound something like this: "I think I understand why everyone wants to propose the factory consolidation idea, as we've had nothing but trouble with factory-to-factory material transport logistics, are wasting a bunch of money on maintaining redundant machinery, and have a lot of expensive jobs that are done by entire departments that could be done by one person. Further, I can see that while the executive team might have sticker shock at $100 million, they may get on board with the idea of a long-term return on investment, especially if we were able to get good terms when borrowing the money. I am a bit concerned, however, that we were asked to come up with immediate cost-cutting measures, and while factory consolidation is a fantastic long-term cost-saving strategy, I believe that the executive team is looking for something much shorter term, perhaps even something that could be implemented immediately. As a result, I think it might be better to table the factory consolidation idea for now, and to instead propose canceling the production of unprofitable products, and revisit factory consolidation at a later date - what does everyone think?"

Raising an objection to a group of people who are passionate and committed to a bad idea with a looming deadline that is only minutes away is no easy task, and it is entirely possible that people may get upset at you for not wanting to go along with the group. Though it's not the easy thing, however, it is often the right thing to do, because as a professional, we should strive to do the right thing for our organization.

Our goal in raising an objection is not to make ourselves look good, or to make anyone else look bad, only to achieve the best outcome. Provided everyone understands that this is your true intention, you have a good chance of your objection being interpreted for what it is - offering a better path forward that is in everyone's best interest.