Is anyone listening?

Have you ever found yourself screaming into the void? On repeat, but no one is listening?

I have been that voice countless times- able to articulate the needs of a niche group that is continually forgotten. When your groups’ point of view is not considered, the products and solutions inevitably do not meet your needs. This perpetuates the cycle of you being viewed as an outsider or noncompliant. Trust between those making decisions and your group cannot be established within this cycle as both groups feel like “they don’t get it”. This “othering” of people is counterproductive and sometimes dangerous.

So how can we break the cycle? 

The path towards alignment involves finding commonalities and shared goals. If we can view everyone as united around the same vision, we can start to be teammates rather than opponents. We can start to give others the benefit of the doubt and ask questions rather than make assumptions. In an organization, this may require a mindset shift towards the shared mission, rather than department goals alone.

One way that organizations can bring groups together effectively is by using a strategy we call “cross-influence”. Cross-influence means having the opportunity to provide input and advice at important points in time while not owning every decision collectively or having on-going cross-functional meetings without specific goals.  

Here are the 3 steps to get on the path towards cross-influence:

Step One: Set shared, mission focused, goals with shared measures of success. 

Step Two: Be clear on who makes decisions. 

Step Three: Share information faster and in a different way.

Read more about cross-influence here.

At SWIM, we’ve helped many organizations work together more effectively (while minimizing the void screaming). If you would like to discuss what this looks like in your organization,schedule a discovery session with us.