A Brief Case

I love a good pun

Interpersonal communication is the make up of all human interaction. Communication consists of but is not limited to talking, body language, and affect are all forms of communication. My ideas on communication are both vast, and for week 5 of ideation I want to cue us into just one of my perspectives on communication. Often, people in tense decision making situations will feel like they are arguing or debating ideas back and forth. My assessment is this posture is rarely generative and instead it is often unconstructive. Arguing represents a breakdown of communication more than a sign of proper communication itself

When so much of the work many of us are involved in requires the ability to get your point across amidst divergent viewpoints, how can we manage to get our ideas across without slipping into feeling like we have to prove or assert our right to feel the way we do? How can we communicate clearly our ideas in a way such that it exists as a standalone and begets direct constructive responses? How do we fight off the desire to want to be right?

My idea? Do not argue, assert, prove, or be in the position of making this and “me vs the world” situation

Instead, make the (brief) case for your idea. Saving ourselves the puns, I’d like to introduce you to an idea I often employ?

Making the Case: An Ideology of Collaborative Decision Making

“Make the case” are the words we should all be saying to ourselves anytime we feel passionately about a decision and are pondering how best to communicate our ideas. When you make the case for something your responsibility is to set out the situation for others to be able to view and make an assessment of themselves. You should consider this when theorycrafting has run its course and it seems the group is ready for problem solving and decision making. We all know this transition from theory to practice is often the hardest part of much of the work we do on the day in and day out.?

This approach requires you to put the work in to give the team as close to a proof of concept as you can without robbing them of the critical inquiries required to make their contribution meaningful to the final product. Your goal in making the case is to bring them up to speed on where your assessment is and ask them to assess your assessment. Making the case should invite them to clarify their own position, add critical feedback to your positions, and work therein towards a healthy middle ground. In other words, rather than stating this is how you feel, saying you are right, or even attempting to provide the solution to the problem or task at hand, simply make the case.

Every team is only a team insofar that they actualize the collaborative potential of their group. We would not call a team of professional sport players a team if they all had different objectives when they were in the game. A team in name, maybe. Not a team in spirit. Making the case allows you in a space of collaboration to bring people together in the face of cross threads towards a singular idea in a moment in time.?

Approaches to Making the Case

To start, begin with some semblance of naming your vantage point and current position on the issue. From there present a potential pathway forward. Open the door for people to play with the idea, critique, add, subtract, bolster, or accept as is. Request others share similarly, sometimes you just need to be the first person to put a potential idea out there to move people from the theory space to the problem solving space. Some sentence starters:

• “What I’m understanding is _____. Are others in alignment with that?”
• “I understand ____ to be a challenge for us in moving forward and I think a plan could be to _____” What does the team think, can that work?”
• “If _____ is the challenge, have we considered ____? What would be some of the fears in moving in that direction?”
• “What I’m struggling with is _____. What do you all think we can do to address that?”

When using these or similar statements that maybe fit your vernacular better, consider the moment in time. Making the case has the most impact in my experience when the conversation has stagnated or the group begins to talk in circles. These dialogical frames are pointed, direct, and still open enough to allow people to respond freely to the ideas in a way that works for them. Summarize what happened up to the point in the dialogue from your vantage point, make your case, and ask for feedback, ideas, contributions, and critique.?

Strong leadership rests so much on the art of saying these statements. When you say it, how you say it, how you have shown up prior to saying it and how to respond to their ideas after. The art is the soft skills. I hope these ideas on making the the case give you some things to ponder and consider.

Addendum on the particulars of language

The best part about this newsletter is I can share silliness that I find in the world in a public space for others. How great is the briefcase/brief case connection.?

Briefcases are square, compact, concise form of carrying papers, clothes, or during warring times of the past super cool spy gadgets

A brief case in conversational usage is a compact, clear, concise form of communicating a position you have. Moreover, a brief as used in political language is a form of giving some a short publication on a particular topic.

Where would a short written document compacting a complex issue into its basic letter form communication fit? A briefcase. A case that holds a brief.?

What do you call a brief for a particular case study, say for a legal decision? A case brief.

Briefcases hold briefs, brief cases on issues, a case brief if you will.?

Case is a fascinating word. We have not even begun to discuss the criminal, legal, scientific, or verb usage of the word itself. In any case…