While the participants, setting, and approach change depending on the decision at hand, you need to create a consistent climate, or tone, for all your meetings. The climate you establish strongly influences how members of your team interact with one another. Consider the following scenario: A manager at a software development company has been charged with assigning limited resources to the firm's current projects. The manager calls a meeting with all of her project leaders to discuss how the resources will be allocated. The discussion quickly turns into an argument. Each project leader advocates for his or her project. The debate gets heated as the conversation goes around in circles, and each project leader disparages the others' efforts. Ultimately, the manager decides to assign the limited resources to three projects. The project leaders leave the meeting exhausted and frustrated. What went wrong in this example? The manager did not manage the decision-making process effectively and the meeting deteriorated into an advocacy mode. The project leaders viewed the meeting as a competition. They advocated for their positions without considering the needs of other departments or the company as a whole. In advocacy situations, people tend to offer only the information that supports their case and omit details that might weaken it. As a result, the discussion can quickly deteriorate into personal attacks, giving rise to negative emotions. In a perfect world, decisions would be made using an inquiry approach—an open process in which individuals ask probing questions, explore different points of view, and identify a wide range of options with the goal of reaching a decision that the group creates and owns collectively. In an inquiry mode, individuals set aside their personal opinions or preferences in order to arrive at a decision that is best for the group or organization.

While the participants, setting, and approach change depending on the decision at hand, you need to create a consistent climate, or tone, for all your meetings. The climate you establish strongly influences how members of your team interact with one another.

Consider the following scenario:

A manager at a software development company has been charged with assigning limited resources to the firm's current projects. The manager calls a meeting with all of her project leaders to discuss how the resources will be allocated. The discussion quickly turns into an argument. Each project leader advocates for his or her project. The debate gets heated as the conversation goes around in circles, and each project leader disparages the others' efforts. Ultimately, the manager decides to assign the limited resources to three projects. The project leaders leave the meeting exhausted and frustrated.

What went wrong in this example? The manager did not manage the decision-making process effectively and the meeting deteriorated into an advocacy mode. The project leaders viewed the meeting as a competition. They advocated for their positions without considering the needs of other departments or the company as a whole. In advocacy situations, people tend to offer only the information that supports their case and omit details that might weaken it. As a result, the discussion can quickly deteriorate into personal attacks, giving rise to negative emotions.

In a perfect world, decisions would be made using an inquiry approach—an open process in which individuals ask probing questions, explore different points of view, and identify a wide range of options with the goal of reaching a decision that the group creates and owns collectively. In an inquiry mode, individuals set aside their personal opinions or preferences in order to arrive at a decision that is best for the group or organization.