Leadership

In Action

Playbook

SECTION 6
Getting Every Brain
in the Game
 Takeaways

“No single person, no matter how smart, can take

a business to its apex. For that you need every
voice to be heard.”

Jack Welch

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 Takeaways

Getting Every Brain in the Game

What it Means
What’s one universal thing that every person in the world instinctively wants?
The opportunity to be heard. Giving dignity and voice means giving everyone
on the team the chance to speak their minds and share their ideas openly
without fear of reprisal or humiliation.

Why it Matters

•Engages team members and lets each person know that they are essential to the
organization’s success.

•Builds trust and cohesion in the team.

•Fosters an entrepreneurial spirit that is driven by speed, flexibility and creativity.

•Prevents “group think” and getting stuck in a pattern of “this is the way we’ve always
done it.”

•Increases the pool of new ideas generated from across the organization.

•Continues to reinforce candor by actively demonstrating that it is not only okay for
team members to share their thoughts, but it is expected.

•Creates a competitive advantage by finding new ways to improve products and

processes.

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 Action Plan

Getting Every Brain in the Game

There’s no one silver bullet for infusing your organization with dignity and voice.
However, if your organization is large, overly bureaucratic and/or simply in need of a
“jumpstart” on creativity, it is often helpful to organize a structured session to solve your
most urgent challenges and get at new ideas. You will find an example of a “Work-
Out” model on the following pages that brings the business decision-makers together
with the people who actually do the work. However, in the meantime, there are a lot of
simpler steps that you can take to get things moving in the right direction.

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 Action Plan

Your Starting Point

As you think about whether your organization is doing all it can to ensure that
everyone is treated with dignity and has a voice that is being heard, consider
the following:

1 2

Do you listen to everyone on your team more When was the last time you actively solicited
than you talk? feedback and new ideas?

3 4

Are your goal-setting processes and

Do you have a formal mechanism to seek
performance evaluations a two-way
feedback? Do you need one?
conversation?

5 6

Can you recall a time when you celebrated If you are a senior level manager, what are
people who brought good ideas? Have you you doing to ensure that people two or more
done it enough? levels below you can get their voices heard?

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 Action Plan

Quick Wins for Giving People Voice

If you want to get every brain in the game and get new ideas flowing to find
“a better way every day”, then it all starts with trust. Your team has to know
that their voices will be heard and that they can share their concerns. As the
leader, it’s up to you to establish, support, and reward this culture. Getting
started doesn’t have to be complicated; it just has to be sincere.

•Demonstrate explicit, public (even exaggerated) support when team members come
up with good ideas. Others will catch on. They will see that you’re excited and they
will get excited. They’re going to want some of that praise for themselves, and so will
quickly start looking to bring forth new ideas.

•If the idea is presented in a private meeting, it doesn’t have to stay private. Send an
email around (copying the person who shared the idea, of course) making a big deal
about it. A simple message saying, “I was talking with _____earlier today and she had
a great suggestion about ____” can put a smile on that person’s face all day long and
inspire the rest of the team to bring their best thoughts forward.

•Never ever, ever humiliate a team member in a public setting. As soon as you shoot
down an idea or belittle someone you send a message to everyone else on the team
that this is not a safe environment to speak out. If the suggestion raises a concern that
needs to be addressed with the person who raised it, do so privately and directly, but
never lose your cool.

•Send a note. Yes, a note – a handwritten one (remember those?) to tell a team
member how much you appreciated their contribution to a discussion. In these days
of digital noise, getting a handwritten note stands out. In fact, don’t be surprised if
team members save a note from the boss for years.

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 Action Plan

A Work-Out Planning
Questionnaire (1/2)
Cutting through bureaucracy and politics to empower fast action, a Work-Out
session brings top managers together with the team members who are closest
to the work itself to identify critical business improvements and decide on
specific solutions in real time. Once the key decisions are made, the team is
challenged to implement the recommended changes in 30 to 90 days.

1 What problem has been identified that the Work-Out event is seeking to address?

2 

3 

4 

5 Who needs to be involved in getting the problem solved? Think about all the
departments (and levels) that are impacted, who should contribute to finding a
solution and what their roles should be.

6 When can the Work-Out Session be held? Think about the balance between speed
to action and giving session participants time to adequately prepare.

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 Action Plan

A Work-Out Planning
Questionnaire (2/2)
7 What other work projects may be interrupted by the event? What is the plan for
making sure that productivity is not lost while participants meet for the Work-Out?

8 What is your plan for communicating the purpose of the Work-Out session to: (a)
colleagues, (b) managers and (c) other team members?

9 How can you help the team to prepare for the event so that it is a good use of
everyone’s time? See the next section for examples.

10 What logistics do you need to consider to ensure that the venue and timing are
optimal? Consider:

•Travel requirements for participants.

•Other projects and deadlines that could be disrupted (or be disruptive).

•Vacation time that has already been scheduled.

•Location – onsite of offsite (each has its advantages and disadvantages).

•Post-event commitments that could undermine effective implementation.

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 Action Plan

Setting a Work-Out Agenda

and Expectations (1/2)
Effective pre-planning (previous page) is critical for an effective session.
Remember, you are asking people to give up valuable time to gather together
to solve a problem. An unstructured event or wide-open brainstorming
session may get you to where you need to be (if you’re lucky), but you increase
the odds of success considerably if you plan in detail. Rather than present a
specific template, which may or may not meet your needs, the following is an
event checklist to think through as you craft the agenda.

Suggested agenda:

•Introductions

•Brainstorming with small teams

•Presenting the ideas

•Developing the top 5 best ideas

•Decision making by the key business manager (a Work-Out

always concludes with this)

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 Action Plan

Setting a Work-Out Agenda

and Expectations (2/2)
Suggested agenda:

Defining a plan of action

Clearly establish pre-work and session expectations. Everyone must come with:
•A well-articulated idea of the problem to be fixed.
•Identification of the steps of the existing processes.
•An idea of the measurable improvement goals being sought.

Make sure that event leaders have thought-starter questions and process diagrams to
both get the creative juices flowing and to make sure everyone really does understand
ALL the steps of the processes involved. Pictures (such as diagrams) really can be worth
a thousand words.

Carefully review all the tools needed for the event such as: reports, spreadsheets,
calculators, flipcharts, internet access, etc. Getting to the event and realizing that some
key work can’t be done onsite can derail the whole session.

Be realistic about the agenda and comfort issues. Pretending that everyone can work
in a small room or can be wide awake and alert after a 12 hour marathon session is not
realistic. Plan for:

•Comfortable attire (leave the suits behind).

•Lots of refreshments.
•Room for breakouts and group work.

Define ownership of event deliverables and (if possible) outcomes/actions before the
event starts.

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 Action Plan

Implementing Approved
Recommendations (1/2)
Getting every brain in the game accomplishes little if nothing changes as a
result of all the great ideas generated. Remember, not every idea can, should
or will be implemented. While it is essential to make sure the team knows this
going in (and knows not to take it personally if their ideas can’t be acted on
right now), there must be an established protocol for implementing the ideas
that are agreed upon.

Set an implementation goal ahead of time. Jack’s model was:

•75% of the decisions should be agreed upon immediately

•25% will be resolved in 30 days

It is essential that your Work-Out Session conclude with the following

6 action steps:

1 Agreement among stakeholders as to what decisions have been made – no

ambiguity.

2 

3 Specific and measurable action items must have a timeline and owner attached
to them.

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 Action Plan

Implementing Approved
Recommendations (2/2)
4 

5 

6 Mid-point reviews (and possibly follow-up meetings) must be scheduled so that:

•Everyone knows there is accountability to take IMMEDIATE action.

•They can check in and see the progress (and adjust course as needed).

• It can be clearly demonstrated that the Work-Out event was not just lip
service.

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 Game Pages

Infusing Your Organization

with Dignity and Voice
The following pages contain tools and templates to help you get
organized and implement your plan.

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 Game Pages

Your Starting Point

1 Do you listen to everyone on your team 2 When was the last time you actively
more than you talk? solicited feedback and new ideas?

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

3 Do you have a formal mechanism to seek 4 

feedback? Do you need one?
___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

___________________________________________ ___________________________________________

5 Can you recall a time when you celebrated 6 

people who brought good ideas? Have
you done it enough?

___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

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 Game Pages

Work-Out Agenda
and Expectations (1/2)
Event Name:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Date, Time, Location, Attire: Additional Logistical Details:

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

Event Objective:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Attendees:

__________________________ __________________________ __________________________

__________________________ __________________________ __________________________

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 Game Pages

Work-Out Agenda
and Expectations (2/2)
Instructions:

•Come to the event prepared with… [Complete the sentence]

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

•Expectations for your participation at the event include… [Complete the sentence]

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

•Following the event you will be responsible for… [Complete the sentence]

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Schedule: Other Items:

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

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 Game Pages

Event Preparations (1/2)

For the Work-Out session, I need to prepare the following:

Reports: Work/Product Samples:

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

Ideas of What Isn’t Working:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Histories of Key Initiatives:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

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 Game Pages

Event Preparations (2/2)

Suggestions for Improvement:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Potential Barriers to Implementation:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Requests for Support:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

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 Game Pages

My Action Items
Item: Due Date:

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

Resources Currently Available: Additional Resources Needed:

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

Team Members Involved: Deliverables:

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

_______________________________________ _______________________________________

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