The Importance of Collective Thinking

As business leaders, it's natural to wear our divisional hats most of the time; for example, a Chief Commercial Officer might spend 80% of their time driving the sales and marketing division and only 20% of their time leading the company. ?However, it's also natural—and necessary—for individuals to come together to protect their collective interests. This is where collective thinking comes into play, and it's an important tool for considering the needs of the whole company over any one member's personal goals. With that in mind, here are my top three tips for how business leaders can create high-performing strategy sessions that harness collective thinking.

1.??? Know how to swap your divisional hat for your corporate one

In my experience, it's important for business leaders to know how to move from a "divisional" to a "corporate" mindset when going into any leadership strategy session. No matter how unintentional, showing up with your own agenda creates an inherent bias that can undermine what your team is there to accomplish.

Wearing your corporate hat should start when you enter the room (if not before). How you show up to these sessions can have a big impact on the effectiveness and thinking of your leadership team. Start by setting your purpose and role for this session in your mind; what objectives do you know need to be accomplished?

I had the opportunity to build my senior leadership team around me in my current role. When we first became a group, we used a behavioral enneagram tool to help us understand each other’s natural adaptive states and styles as individuals. This helped us to be aware of each other’s tendencies and traits. I've found that if you understand the individual, it becomes easier to come together as a group and communicate effectively.

It is worth taking the time to set this foundation. In a three-day leadership strategy session, spend half a day on understanding these individual styles, then put it together to form a collective team style. Understanding how your individual motivations make you perform as a team can help get you underway.?

2. Create an environment that promotes psychological safety

The next step is creating an environment of psychological safety that allows teams to freely suggest and challenge ideas, concepts, and recommendations and safely break down barriers. As Nigel Travis, former Vice Chairman of Dunkin Donuts, wrote, “We thrive in environments that respect us and allow us to (1) feel included, (2) feel safe to learn, (3) feel safe to contribute, and (4) feel safe to challenge the status quo. If we can’t do these things, if it’s emotionally expensive, fear shuts us down."

Ways to create an environment of psychological safety include encouraging team members to share their ideas and opinions without fear of criticism, and actively listening to what they have to say. It’s also important to champion your teams, build a culture of empathy and most importantly avoid creating a blame culture.

Ensuring your people feel comfortable enough to share their genuine individual motivations is half the battle. When your team feels safe to discuss, challenge and exhaust every possibility around an idea, you will be well-positioned to make the best collective decision for the business.?

3. Put it into action

Lastly, it’s common to come together for what feels like energizing, challenging and exciting sessions, only to then disband, return to "reality," and implement nothing. But meeting just for meeting’s sake can quickly undermine the psychological safety of your sessions and drain the energy and motivation of your team.??

So, while you should acknowledge your company's current state and focus on the needs and wants of the entire business, including both customers and stakeholders, don't forget to put your strategy into practice. Take time to recognize the problems the team and company are experiencing,?but don’t spend the rest of your session just hashing over what you know isn’t working—build your action plan, then collectively hold each other accountable to take the next steps and have new results you can share at future meetings.?

Only when your team feels safe to freely contribute their thoughts and understand each other’s working style can you realize the full benefits of collective thinking. If you can master this, you will be in a position to harness the different experiences and perspectives of your team and foster a culture of innovative thinking for your business.