Advocacy versus inquiry in a group decision making process

Advocacy orientation Inquiry Orientation

How do you play? •Forcefully and confidently advocate your point of view

•Represent your role

•Put forward your point of view as partial and inquire into others views

•Play different roles, e.g., skeptical generalist.

Unstated rules of the game

• The aim is to win, gaining converts to your point of view

• The aim is to collectively arrive at the best solution

View of others •Competitors •Collaborations

Strategy for dealing with gaps in your case

•Hide them •Reveal them

Response to dissent • Suppress if, find it annoying

•Seek it, examine its implications

To promote an inquiry orientation

• Setting the stageBuild a climate of psychological safety

Frame the group decision-making task as a collective

learning process• Leading the discussion

Promote inquiry, seek input, weigh issues together Continually assess your own and the group’s

orientation• Reviewing the process

How did we do? What should we keep? What can we do better?

Leading the discussion

• State own views clearly, making reasoning explicit, and encourage others (especially silent group members) to do the same.

• Invite others to help you see what you may be missing• Elicit views of others and seek to understand their

reasoning • Consider in advance and be aware of own biases,

patterns of behavior and emotional triggers• Inquire into surprise, error and disagreement

Assessing your approach

Advocacy orientation Inquiry Orientation

Perception of what the options are:

•Go/no go (Win/lose) •Multiple alternatives likely exist

Dissent during the discussion

•Not evident •Frequent

Sense of progress on issue

•Limited to one: going around in circles; no one seems to give or change

•Deepening understanding of issues, development of new possibilities or tests

Gaps in individuals’ cases (e.g., in my case)

•Remain unfilled and remain largely hidden

•Are being partially or completely filled by combining knowledge

Individual learning •None on issues, increased awareness of others limitations

• Awareness of each others’ reasoning and its implications for issue

Summary

• Two conditions for better group decisions

An inquiry orientation Framing the decision-making task as a

collaborative learning process

Psychological safety Individuals feeling comfortable during discussion

(An inquiry orientation in an environment of psychological safety leads to better decisions )