Why Getting Unanimous Agreement is Bad for Strategy

Leaders tend to strive for unanimous agreement — especially for large strategic decisions and situations where there’s a lot of uncertainty. If we have full commitment from our team, we must be making the right decision! Who wouldn’t want everyone to be on board?

But unanimous agreement doesn’t mean there’s true agreement, no matter how many head nods you get in your meeting. Unanimous agreement can actually indicate bias in the team’s decision-making. This principle is well illustrated in this example from ancient Jewish law:

“If a suspect on trial was unanimously found guilty by all judges, then the suspect was acquitted. This reasoning sounds counterintuitive, but the legislators of the time had noticed unanimous agreement often indicated the presence of systemic bias in the judicial process, even if the exact nature of the bias was yet to be discovered.”

In every strategy meeting I’ve ever attended the objective was always to get a positive, unanimous agreement on what the strategy should be. That’s the entirely wrong objective.

Strategy is inherently about thinking counterintuitively in an environment of complexity. This means not doing what everyone else is doing, and that requires some dissent. You want people to have some doubts and questions. You want people to discuss things adjacent to the common and familiar that cause some discomfort. This means you won’t have a positive, unanimous agreement, and you shouldn’t.

About Andrea

Andrea’s 25-year, field-tested background provides practical, behavioral science approaches to creating differentiated, human-focused organizations. A 4x ADDY award-winner, TEDx presenter, and 3x book author, she began her career at a tech start-up and led the strategic sales, marketing, and customer engagement efforts at two global industrial manufacturers. She now leads a change agency dedicated to helping organizations differentiate their brands and drive adoption using behavioral science.

In addition to writing and consulting, Andrea speaks to leaders and industry organizations around the world. Connect with Andrea to access information on her book, keynoting, research, or consulting. More information is also available at www.pragmadik.com or . www.andreabelkolson.com

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.