The 4 Necessary Components to Board Rooms

[Greyson F]

On my mission to read as many books as I can, I stumbled across one particular book that brought the psychological perspective of how humans interact irrationally, and how we can change that. While this book, Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Bafman, covers a wide range of different interesting psychological aspects that makes humans do crazy and sometimes stupid things, I'm going to share one specific chapter with you that pertains to business.

After discussing the detriment to offering employees incentives and bonuses (I will discuss this in a different post), the authors went into a different category of business operations: the board room. The idea creation machine. The head of operations. Ori and Rom dissected the psychological pieces that makes a group effective, organized, and harmonious towards more than just the relations between the group members. The 4 necessary components that they described in a group lead to more productive operations, and a more successful business.

1. THE INITIATOR (US FELLOW FASTLANERS) - This should be you. The initiator is the member of the group that, "always has ideas, likes to start new projects, and advocates for new ways of moving forward," according to the book. These are the front runner of the company, and the visionary that looks to find new ways to solve problems and expand operations. However, while this might be the head of the company, the next component must hold an equal and necessary respect in the group knitting.
2. THE BLOCKER (THE DISSENTER) - As painful and annoying as it might seem, having a team member that consistently challenging and finding faults with the ideas of the Initiator is a necessary component to group success. These members bring in the psychological availability of other options on the table. As the book describes in that chapter, a group of any kind with a strong, one-sided opinion, usually ever has dissenters speak up about possible flaws, even if the flaw in the plan is very noticeable. Having a challenge against the Initiator will create a more open-minded atmosphere, and "play a vital role in maintaining balance within a group," claims Ori and Rom, and "even if the Blocker's opinion is wrong, it at least adds perspective to the debate."
3. THE OBSERVER (THE FACTS) - This member of the team is very important in the team, because they hold objective information about the discussion. These team members hold no opinion for or against the Initiator or the Blocker, they simply "comment on what's going on," and provide facts for the members to use in deciding on the best decision to follow. Staying neutral allows bias to be alluded, and a very clear-headed approach to be adopted by the entire group.
4. THE SUPPORTER (THE TIPPER) - The Supporter more active Observer in the group. From the two points of view given by both the Initiator and the Blocker, the supporter's job is to pick a side in which he/she finds the better outcome to be represented. While the observer takes a neutral, objective approach to the situation, the supporter does the opposite, and instead makes a subjective decision on which side to support based on the elements given by all parties.

Through these four elements, business teams will experience more productivity in their work, as well as a jump in the quality of their ideas. One-sided executive boards will lead to illusions and disarray. Instead, focus on challenging each other, and truly bringing about ideas that solve problems and answer challenges, because beyond the doors of the executive room, its THE CUSTOMER that you will have to ultimately answer to if the idea goes south.

I hope this helped, as it has definitely enlightened me! I am almost finished reading the book, and I would recommend it to anyone who deals with people on a daily basis. It brings an understanding that is out of the box, and highly proven through statistical data and social experiments.

 

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