Collaboration
and obtaining resolution in decision-making can be challenging, and gaining
stakeholder feedback is very valuable. My reflection blog this week is to
review a situation where I was faced with a decision, describing the process I
went through and its outcome.
Situation
This past
weekend I attended a leadership synergy meeting that included the president and
vice president for the Lockheed Martin Leadership Association (LMLA)
organizations from Texas, Georgia, California and South Caroline. This meeting
also included the attendance of two national directors from the National
Management Association (NMA). This meeting is held quarterly to synergize
events, collaborate ideas, and mentor other associational needs, as an
integrated leadership team within the aeronautics business unit.
Each year
each of the sites host an even called Corporate Night, where an executive from
corporate headquarters visits and provide and update on corporate strategies,
current, and networking with various business leaders. During this synergy
meeting the group is supposed to provide a suggested executive they would like
to have participate in each corporate night event. The overall concept is to
ensure one person is selected to participate and everyone would receive the
same message, collectively.
Back to
the meeting, when it was time to nominate suggested speakers for the event,
there were a couple surprises or glitches that caused some verbal conflict. The
first glitch is the Georgia location was asked by their site executive
leadership to not put on the event at all. The second glitch was the Texas
association already secured their speaker, and was not open to follow the
processes outlined by the synergy meeting guidelines.
For my
blog, I will reflect on why the Georgia LMLA decision to remove the event at
the request of our executive leadership, identify the stakeholders are, and how
change allowed the team to make a better decision. Lastly, the decision-making effort also
gained interest from another LMLA site to follow suit with the same decision.
Stakeholders
The primary
stakeholders are the memberships, who pay weekly dues to the organization.
Currently there are estimated 1,500 members, and average attendance to the
event is less than 200, or less than 13%. The secondary stakeholders are the
LMLA organization, corporate leadership, and the site leadership responsible
for the event. Lack of attendance can reflect negative to corporate leadership
and possibly an embarrassment to the site leadership and the organization. The
key stakeholders that would be impacted the most are the LMLA leadership. As
the Executive Vice President, we strive to ensure we meet needs of the
membership, and making the decision to stop an event that is embraced with
culture traditions, are not easy.
Stakeholder Interest
As
leadership of the organization, there is substantial evidence to stop the event
based on the attendance numbers. We have the direct order of the site
leadership to stop the event, but as an organization we had to survey the
membership to determine their interest in having the event. The corporate night
event is very similar to our veteran’s appreciation dinner, but the difference
is attendance for the veteran’s appreciation dinner maxes out with over 500 in
attendance. The survey feedback gave the membership the ability to decide
whether or not they wanted the organization to continue with the corporate
night. The membership was included and the result mirrored exactly what the
site leadership directed. Although, the feedback chose no event, they were not
shy in providing their personal feedback about the event, itself. Feedback was
negative and the event was just for management to hob nob with executive
leaders. This information is valuable to our organization for planning events
that are better aligned with the membership needs and wants. Reviewing their interests will also strengthen
our organization, and increase our visibility to the membership that we are
listening.
Stakeholder buy-in
Membership,
leadership, and organization stakeholders are impacted by decisions made by the
organization. The viewpoints, opinions, and feedback are a consideration to
obtain commitment in the overall decision-making process. Understanding and
respecting stakeholders, can help the organization make better choices, as they
may have better validation or different perspective to the decision making
process. As a leader in the organization, I have learned to listen and gain
buy-in prior to making a decision about events as large as corporate night.
Lessons Learned
Reflecting
on my decision to follow suit with our leadership team to not do the corporate
night event, was the right decision. At first, I was wrapped up in the culture
dynamics that we had to do this event, because we always did. In the
decision-making process, I included the membership to gain perspective and
feedback prior to make a rash decision. Collaboration with the membership
fosters trust, teamwork, and will help build long-term relationships,
especially since in less than six months I will be the president. I feel the
membership buy-in also leverages the accountability of the decision is
equalized across the organization, not sole on one person.
Synergy resolution
The
synergy meeting comments that were intense began with other sites identifying
that our site was allowing site leadership run our organization, which was
wrong. Basically, I felt they were jumping to conclusions and not using their
listening skills. I shared collaboration feedback by the membership. After good hour of reviewing the change, one
site elected to also remove the corporate night event. Whether they will survey
the membership is outside my element as EVP at the Georgia site, I am glad the
decision to gain membership buy-in is what made our decision more successful.
I feel
better about removing the even, and will definitely take the time in the future
to survey our membership in big decisions that are change, especially culture
driven. I would also mentor and encourage others to learn to listen,
collaborate, and gain buy-in when decisions affect other people.
References:
Gilbert, D. (2005, July). Dan Gilbert: Why we make bad
decisions | Talk Video | TED.com [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_researches_happiness
Hoch, S. J., Kunreuther, H. C. & Gunther, R. E. (2001). Wharton
on making decisions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Levine, S.
(2009). Getting to Resolution: Turning conflict into collaboration (2nd
ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berett-Koehler.
