Team Communication and Difficult Conversations

For each Discussion, you are responsible for two parts. Be sure to POST YOUR RESPONSE TO YOUR GROUP DISCUSSION topic, and also,please COMMENT ON ANOTHER STUDENT POST by bringing something new to theconversation (another perspective, disagree, other facts, anotherconcept, different company, etc.). Please avoid posting a simpleagreement or compliment, and reply with a well thought out comment.

Group #1 Discussion Topic:

Brainstorming at Meetings (LO 3.1, LO 3.2, LO 3.5)

Susan Docherty, former president andmanaging director of General Motors, described how she and her teamcommunicate at meetings:

I love to brainstorm with my teamaround the table in my office. I like to use a big whiteboard for ideas,because when you make things visual, you encourage the team to get upthere at the whiteboard and put their thoughts out there. It’s one thingto say that you’re inclusive, but it’s a whole other thing to beinclusive. And when people come into my office, they feel welcome. Mydoor is open. They can bring ideas. They begin to understand that, as aleader, I want to be collaborative. I don’t have all the answers or allthe best ideas, nor do I want to. The whiteboard also keeps great ideasin front of us, not buried in an email and not buried in a stack ofpapers on our desks. And it enables everybody to own what we’ve got toget done. People will grab a marker and put up there that we’re going todo a deep dive to figure something out, and they put their name besideit. And there are lots of times where we put something on the board, andit requires a couple of people to get together to go work on it.⁶⁶

Based on Docherty’s comments and your own experiences, answer the following:

1. What strategies can you use for making meetings more visual? What are the benefits of making meetings visual?
2. What strategies can you use to make meetings more inclusive?
3. What does it mean for “everybody to ownwhat we’ve got to get done”? What are a few approaches you can take tohelp make this happen for work teams?