Video Transcript:
The great thing about collaboration is that we actively encourage involvement and allow people to speak their mind. We know from experience, once people are involved in the process, they tend to take greater ownership and subsequently deliver better results.
However, let’s not confuse collaboration with compromise. We’ve all done that. We want to take everyone views into account, try not to offend, and end up creating something that maybe, isn’t so good.
This is especially true if there’s a group in a meeting trying to thrash out a particularly tricky problem. Perhaps a problem that it’s difficult to get agreement upon or come to a clear conclusion of what the right solution is. It’s natural to get to a stage where something starts to sound good, maybe even great.
We’ve all been in that room for so long having the same discussion, probably just going around in circles. But really, it’s the group trying to convince themselves it’s good. This is what I call Four Walls Thinking. And to be clear, it’s not a good thing.
We’re stuck in that room, no closer to a good outcome and everyone compromises on something rubbish. A good test is if you wake up the next morning and you think that new brand that you decided on the day before is terrible, you’re probably right.
Always remember no matter how you got there, good is good, and bad is bad. Don’t succumb to Four Walls Thinking.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has been through a similar experience. And, if you’d like to learn how Highlands can help you avoid a Four Walls scenario please get in touch.
Author
Gordon Christiansen Partner of Highlands
