Page 148 - 25148.pdf

136 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

of the planning session. Where two or three people are gathered together, you will
find differences of opinion, multiple ideas, different angles on the same topic, per-
sonal prejudices and all the other features of a team of human beings.

These tend to reduce the efficiency of a team. It is the job of the facilitator and
of course of the team itself, to maintain a number of disciplines.

Talk and document in short, simple but complete sentences

This item is proved in the detail on SWOT analysis, and is probably the most im-
portant rule. If we talk in bullet points then we will get quick agreement to a rough
definition of the key issues. But, what we need is the agreement of the team to a
detailed statement of the real meaning of the key issue.

Equal voice, equal vote.

In a creative planning session, rank disappears. It is vital that the planning team
does not believe that it is there to wait until the senior person has expressed a view
and then agree with it.

Real creativity may easily come from a member of the team who is the most
junior and therefore the least experienced. So, chief executives and account manag-
ers, a sure way to kill the creativity of your team is to make it plain, after about an
hour of planning, that the only plan which is going to be acceptable is the one you
had in your head before the meeting started.

Remember that to get a team committed to a plan of action you must encour-
age it to take part in the planning process. Avoid telling them what they are going to
do, like a prophet with tablets of stone.

In the end however, the team has to get to a plan. The difference between equal
voice and equal vote is best shown by an example. In a discussion about where to go