Develop the habit of setting boundaries on how emerging issues will be addressed and as appropriate "testing" issues as they emerge.

• The process in many organizations is one of listening and responding to the most anxious, cynical and passive people. Leaders get so caught up in trying to please or pacify a few people that disproportionate time, energy and resources get tied up in issues that are not really in the organization’s best interest. It also usually leaves a resentful undercurrent while not really addressing the anxiety of those that raised the initial concern.
• Even when leaders know who is raising an issue, they usually do not know whether it is an interest of just those people or of the whole organization.
• The organization’s ability to listen and respond to itself in a constructive manner is facilitated by clear boundaries and a simple "testing" process, along with the processes such as "Channeling" and a yearly strategic assessment.
• Encourage the practice of people speaking for themselves. Teach employees about how to use "I" messages. Discourage "manipulative confidentiality" norms that allow people "to poison the community well" without being accountable for what they say. Leaders need to develop the practice that when someone comes carrying an invisible group’s message to ask "who is saying this, will you join me in meeting with them?"
• A "testing" process helps an organization cope with situations in which a few persistent voices press a concern or idea that would have an effect on the system’s life. What they are saying may represent a widely shared view or it my simply be their view. Those expressing the issue may not really know how many they speak for. Imaging the informal one-on-one coffee break discussion. Someone is making the rounds, letting others know about an important problem. People are listening and even nodding. Is it agreement or politeness?
• Leaders have people come to them claiming that "everyone feels this way." It is important for leaders to know where people really stand on such issues. Otherwise decisions may be made and actions taken that have little ownership in the organization as a whole.
• The use of a "testing process" requires leaders to use sound judgment in deciding when the process is likely to produce valid and useful information as well as helping the system manage its anxiety. Overuse may result in an increase in the community’s anxiety, less listening, and ineffective action. However the danger in most places is not overuse but the absence of any way for the community to define itself in relationship to emerging issues. A rule of thumb might be to use a "testing process" about four times/year with the whole community and possibly ten times with a management team or the board.
• The "testing process" can be done for a few minutes at "all staff gatherings", at board and management team meetings, in working teams and department meetings. It will usually be most effective if done when the group is gathered rather than in a paper survey. Face to face processes are usually more effective in promoting careful listening and effective response.
• A possible process is to identify the issue; put it on a spectrum of some sort; have people indicate where they are on the spectrum; and summarize the result, along with what any next step will be, if any.

For example: in a parish church where several people had been complaining about the extent of the parish’s involvement in the arts.

A spectrum was created --

The eighty parishioners at the meeting came forward to register their

opinion. The result was --

There was no judgment that those who had raised the issue were "wrong", only that most people in the community had a different opinion. Those who had raised the issue saw that their position was not widely shared. It was not just the pet project of the rector and a few members. This involvement had wide ownership. The process allowed the community to know its own mind. The anxiety in the community about "people being upset" was put into perspective.

© Robert A. Gallagher, 1998