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Onirio delves, just for you, into all those delicate, sometimes seemingly improbable (but oh-so-real!) challenges that the world of management throws our way. In each episode, you'll find tips to gain some perspective and expertly navigate through your tricky managerial situations

In today's episode, we talk about participative management.

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🛶Today's Struggle: How to engage the team in changes without losing them along the way!

You're a manager, and your company is undergoing major changes. You'd like to involve your team in building the future. However, some of your colleagues are quite critical of the upcoming changes and wary when asked their opinions about the impending transformation...

So, how do you foster participation in your team without missing the mark?

Why opt for a participatory approach?

Nothing diminishes engagement (and performance) more than a team enduring changes without understanding the reasons. A participatory approach is a process where the various stakeholders in a project or initiative are involved in decision-making and/or problem-solving.

What benefits can you expect from this approach?

Ensuring alignment among different stakeholders
Improving decision quality and avoiding potential pitfalls
Encouraging autonomy, accountability, and proactivity among team members
Generating fresh ideas that wouldn't emerge from individual thinking
Fostering stakeholder engagement and involvement

Participation can range from informal consultation to active co-construction changes, encompassing a wide range of topics (e.g. clarifying everyone's roles and responsibilities in a given process or target organization; improving the workings of a team or department, both internally and with clients or partners; involving users in defining the features of an upcoming IT tool, and so on.

⛔ The common pitfalls of a participatory approach

Striking a balance between the desire for participation and fear of criticism can be challenging. Here's what to steer clear of:

Fake consultation:"I'd truly value your feedback but..." knowing full well the decision has already been made at the top. 😅 The ideas end up on sticky notes, forgotten in a parking lot!
Involving everyone (and therefore no one!): It's good to involve various profiles for diverse viewpoints. But participants should bring relevant skills or experiences concerning the subject matter. Meaning, just because just because Remy is fun and opinionated doesn't mean he should attend every meeting 😋).
Excessive participation: Regularly taking everyone's opinion is fine, but it should be relevant! No, Choosing the office plant or the position of the foosball table doesn't require a 30-person meeting...
Overly conceptual thinking: what were we discussing again? Tangible outcomes are key! Concrete feedback, be it action plans, recommendations, or new initiatives, validates a successful participatory approach

✅ How to engage without going astray?

For a participatory approach to bear fruit, the framework must be rigorously defined, communicated and accepted by the participants:

What are the objectives of the participatory approach? What is the purpose of the change?
Have some elements already been decided upon by top management? If so, establish them as guiding principles
How much freedom will participants have in their thinking? How will the generated ideas be treated and evaluated? Based on what criteria?
What are the main stages of the participatory process? Who will be consulted and when?
What deliverable should be produced? How will it be communicated?

⚠️ Transparency is essential to lend credibility to the participatory process since many participants might doubt the sincerity and utility of such an exercise.

We're sharing a framework to help you structure your participatory approach 😉

🛠️ Some ideas for your participatory workshops

A participatory workshop lets those impacted by the change:

Express, even "purge" their emotions, fears and hesitations (using icebreakers like photo language, emotional weather report, or character trees);
Co-constructing and experimenting with tomorrow's operating methods.
💡Some workshop formats to experiment with, which you can easily find online using these keywords:
- Speedboat to identify obstacles and action levers on a subject and align on a shared target vision
- Reverse brainstorming to generate new ideas through negationto flip a situation and get fresh perspectives (e.g.: "How can we mess up this transformation project?"). This method spontaneously pinpoints actions to avoid — which can be turned into actions to embrace.
- Bono's Six Thinking Hats to examine an issue from multiple perspectives by sequentially adopting different points of view

📢 And always remember the importance of communication!

After gathering opinions and contributions, regular communication is crucial: Which feedback was integrated? Why weren't certain suggestions adopted? Open communication and a culture of debate ensure your team's ongoing engagement and the establishment of genuine participatory habits and methods.

À for the next episode!

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Have you experienced managerial difficulties? Inspire us!

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Episode #13 - Engaging your team collaboratively without dropping the ball!