Getting fake input from smart people

Nearly every founder, CEO, and leader I know says they want to get input from their teams, their peers, and their network on difficult decisions. And most of the time, they fail to get decent input despite their best intentions.

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The failure is almost always self-inflicted. Four mistakes show up repeatedly.

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1️⃣ Not asking the right question. "Do you think our mid-market sales motion could be more effective?" implies that you already know the answer and want agreement. And how can anybody say no to the question as stated? Much better: "What information do you need to help judge whether our mid-market sales motion is as effective as it should be, and what we can do to improve it?"

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2️⃣ Not giving people a chance to think about it. You've been mulling over this question for days. You have several ideas you want to debate, so you call a meeting and explain at the start that the topic is the mid-market sales motion. The rest of your team hasn't even thought about it yet. If you really want good input, you need to give people the topic in advance, provide relevant info for them to consider, and allow time to reflect on it before they walk in.

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3️⃣ Not giving people the opportunity to deliver their input. As soon as the first person speaks, they anchor everyone else. Perhaps that first person has an excellent idea, and other folks think, "Ah, my thought wasn't as good as that. I won't bother mentioning it." Maybe the first contribution is from someone senior, and others think, "Well, if that's what they think, they're probably right - they've got more experience than me." Maybe a couple of people simply dominate the conversation. Maybe someone is embarrassed that their idea will be laughed at. Either way, the input is polluted before most of it reaches the table. Techniques for fixing this are below.

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4️⃣ Not showing that the input is genuinely valued. If you follow someone's idea, they should know they had an impact on the decision. If you don't follow it, they should know it was a valuable thought to consider and that you want them to keep giving input. That means following up later so people see how their contribution was used. Input dries up when people think it goes into a void.

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All of the above applies regardless of whether you're asking the people who report to you, those further down the tree, your peers, your managers, or people outside your company altogether.

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Some specific ways to address 3️⃣:

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• Ask people to share their input with you before the conversation, in writing or verbally, but not to share it with the others involved.

• Have people bring their key ideas written down.

• When you go through the ideas, ask the most junior person to make their suggestion first.

• Require people to describe the idea they wrote down, even if they no longer think it's valid. They might be wrong about that!

• On the first pass, allow a couple of clarifying questions, but don't debate each idea in detail before the full set is on the table.

• Have a chair who makes sure all voices are heard. If that's not your personal strength, delegate it.

• Make it really, really clear that there are no stupid ideas.

• When something is raised by someone junior, make sure it's given proper airtime.

• If a key question surfaces mid-meeting, stop. Give everybody two minutes to think and write down their initial reaction, then go through those one by one - junior person first.

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Good input isn't luck. It's designed.

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I've got a checklist for running meetings that surface substantial and useful input - happy to share it if it would be helpful.