Sense and decide
Threshing
Air every view and decide nothing yet
Hold a separate session before a big decision whose only job is to surface views, concerns, and objections. Do not decide in that session.
Borrowed from threshing sessions in the Quaker business method, held to air every view before a decision is made. Read the original source.
One session · An hour or more to set up · Anyone on the team can start it
Try this first
Open a short session with one line: we are not deciding anything today, we are getting every view on the table.
Use it when
A contentious matter is about to be decided and dissent hasn't surfaced.
Skip it when
This suits consequential or contested decisions with time to prepare. For a simple or urgent decision, it will mostly slow you down.
How to introduce it
Before a divisive decision, hold a session with one rule: nothing gets decided today. Its only job is to bring out every view, concern, and objection. Splitting the airing from the deciding lets people speak before anyone is locked into a position.
How to show up
Guard the no-decision rule. The moment the group starts deciding, the safety to explore collapses. Draw out the reluctant and dissenting views, because those are the ones that otherwise stay hidden.
How long it takes
Thirty to sixty minutes, held before the decision meeting.
What makes it hard
People expect meetings to end in decisions and will push to conclude. Keep sending them back to exploring. The whole value rests on candor, so work on the people holding back.
What it looks like when it's working
Concerns surface that would have stayed hidden until after the decision, and the eventual choice is better informed and better supported. A superficial session means the dissent is still coming, later.
How long until it sticks
Expect a few uses before a team values the separation and stops trying to decide in the airing session.
How you know it stuck
Someone facing a divisive call suggests airing it first and deciding later.
The idea behind it
Decisions go wrong when dissent arrives late. Give disagreement a home before the choice and it strengthens the choice instead of undermining it after.
Where it comes from
Quaker business method. A "no-decision" airing session before a big choice, so dissent surfaces before positions harden. A session to air every view on a contentious matter with no decision permitted, separating exploring from deciding.
Why it matters for senior teams
It shapes direction and consequential decisions