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Making Sound Decisions in the Workplace
58 Plays2 months ago
In this episode of Water Cooler Wisdom, we’re kicking off a brand-new format: Tool Time! Hosts Jake Blocker and Rachael Grail break down one of Interaction Associates’ most effective tools—the Building Agreements framework.
Rachael guides us through this practical, four-step process designed to make collaboration seamless and agreements rock solid. Whether it’s presenting a proposal, checking for understanding, securing agreement, or documenting it all, this model has you covered. Plus, we dive into real-world examples (including why airline exit rows are a masterclass in agreement building) and even tackle advanced techniques for handling disagreements.
Get ready to walk away with actionable strategies that you can immediately apply at work, at home, or even at the taco stand. Tune in for your 10-minute crash course to elevate your collaboration game!
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Transcript
Rebranding and New Episode Formats
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another episode. We're back. We're back. I'm Jay Parker. And I'm Rachel Grail. Rachel, it's great to be back after a little hiatus. I know. It feels like it's been ages since we've done this take.
00:00:28
Speaker
I know I had logged into this platform. I remember how things worked and also a lot of things changed. So it's very confusing, but, uh, yeah, we, we took a little, little hiatus. It's been a busy time over here. We did some rebranding. We did.
00:00:43
Speaker
some in-person meetings. We did so much. And then we also just took a step back to rethink this podcast of what we want this to be. So over the course of the next few episodes, we'll be introducing some new formats for this podcast. So very excited to roll those out. We'll go over each one as the episodes pop up, but excited to get to the first one.
00:01:09
Speaker
Yeah, me
Emphasis on Learning Moments
00:01:11
Speaker
too. You know what I love about this, Jake, is that I'm always teaching people to be considerate about the processes that you use. And so even though I've loved our work with guests and the podcasts that we've done already, I think it's always great to refresh things, think through what is the most effective process for what we're trying to do, what outcomes we want to achieve now. So way to walk your talk, buddy.
00:01:37
Speaker
I know I dig it. Yeah. I think this new, I think it will move a lot more towards the learning moments. That's, I think we're so, so possible in this format and we'll still have guests from time to time, but the focus will be on, I want people to be able to walk away from a short episode here and feel like, Oh, I know something new. I can do something different and yeah, make their life just a little bit easier.
00:02:05
Speaker
That's all about what we're all about. Just here's here's something practical that you can apply right away. So I'm into it.
Introduction of 'Tool Time' Format
00:02:13
Speaker
I'm excited. Perfect segue there to this format number one. So format number one temporarily called tool time. Who knows that may change over time, but the concepts should live on. I can hear an 80s jingle in my mind tool time. I don't know why it's going with Wayne's world.
00:02:33
Speaker
Home Improvement, that was what it's actually from, Tool Time. Oh, that's right. That wasn't intentional, but I think we used it for something else back in the day. Just use it again. I knew it was somewhere in the recesses of my memory. Definitely 90s there. 90s, 90s? I don't know. Anyway. God, it's time. Who knows?
00:02:51
Speaker
and So yeah, this first one is around, you know, at Interaction Associates, we have a ton of models and tools that we teach in our workshops that you, Rachel, teach in the workshops. And we thought like, hey, it would be great to just take one at a time and tackle these in a new format.
00:03:11
Speaker
but with a light little twist here. So Rachel is the content expert. She teaches these you know all the time in our workshops that we deliver. So she's going to go over a tool, but I'm setting a timer for 10 minutes. She has 10 minutes for the listener to fully grasp this model and be able to shut Spotify down or whatever you're listening to us on and immediately use that tool.
00:03:39
Speaker
That's the goal. No pressure there, Rachel. Pressure is on. The heat is on. So that's that's the format. Rachel, anything to add there? No. i'm I'm excited. I think it's going to be fun. All right. Well, I will hand it off for you to introduce a little... I'll tell you when I set the timer, but I'll hand it off to you. And timer is started.
00:04:03
Speaker
All right.
Tool for Building Agreements
00:04:04
Speaker
So the first tool that we are bringing is um the tools for building agreement. Now I love, I actually advocated for this when Jake and I were preparing um this podcast. I said, this is the place to begin because we're all about collaboration. And we say that agreements are the building blocks of collaboration. So it's like brick by brick by brick.
00:04:31
Speaker
But we know that, unfortunately, so oftentimes, we um get into some kind of a collaborative process. We're having meetings with people. we're We're deciding on things, so we think. And then people leave the meeting. They go there separate ways. And then things don't get done.
00:04:51
Speaker
Or we follow up with people and say, how are you coming along on that project timeline that we discussed? And they're like, what? No, I didn't wasn't aware of that. Or I thought that we agreed something differently. And somewhere along the line, it falls apart. Ever had that happen to you, Jake? Never. No, I'm perfect. I never let that. No, it absolutely happens. Even though I've taken our programs, taken our training, it still happens. I'm human.
00:05:18
Speaker
It's like, am I the one taking crazy pills here? Like I thought we talked about it. Our memories fall apart. And sometimes people, they they don't follow through on agreements for all kinds of reasons. Like they never really agreed in the first place, or they didn't really understand what they were agreeing to.
00:05:36
Speaker
I'm not suggesting that people are out there like maliciously ignoring the agreements that they've made. I think it's actually often very well intentioned. It's just like things fall through the cracks or um it just wasn't made to be durable somehow. yeah So what I love about the way that we've built out this framework is that it's just very simple. It's very approachable, but it really is It's durable. um I don't want to use the term bulletproof. I stop myself because I'm trying to change my language. yeah yes So here's how it goes. I'm going to talk through it a little bit. um in the In our workshops, we have visual aids. So I apologize to the visual learners. We don't have that here. So I'll try to paint the picture.
00:06:21
Speaker
um If you can, imagine a little kind of staircase coming down and you start at one end and the very first end is to present a proposal.
Steps to Building Agreements
00:06:33
Speaker
Like someone says, this is what I want to see if you agree to. So step one is you present a proposal. Step two is you check for understanding.
00:06:45
Speaker
Step three is you check for agreement and step four is you document the agreement. So I'm going to walk through those a little bit and with more detail and a little bit of ah an example that I hope will be kind of widely relatable.
00:07:03
Speaker
So I'm going to present a proposal. This is something that I hope people will agree to. Ideally, this will come from some conversation. You can say, okay, we've been talking about this for a little while. And so it sounds like this might work. It could be something like a ah product manager.
00:07:20
Speaker
proposes a timeline for a product launch. They've got milestones and responsibilities for each person responsible for a part of this product launch. So they say, all right, here's what I think we can do. This is the timeline. This is what you're all responsible for.
00:07:36
Speaker
Now, checking for understanding is a really critical component. This is one that I always forgotten a skip where it's like, let's make sure everyone really understands this could be asking people, what do you think the proposal is? Do you understand your role in this?
00:07:54
Speaker
really making sure that what I think I'm saying is also what you're hearing. So much of the time we make assumptions because our minds are amazing. They're meaning making machines. And we think we kind of assume understanding or we assume agreement. So checking for understanding is a very, very critical component.
00:08:14
Speaker
Yeah. Cause also you're the one putting the pearls out. So you're in your head. You're like, Oh yeah, of course. If I understand it, everyone understands it. Not a problem. yes Yeah. And you want to think too, who is, who is in front of you? Um, what questions might they have? What are the power dynamics? You know, you want to set up an environment where people can really ask questions if they don't understand. yeah So, um, don't skip checking for understanding. No.
00:08:40
Speaker
This is another one that it sounds silly, but people skip checking for agreement. They say, okay, everyone's clear. Great, we're doing it, right? Have you ever seen that happen, Jake? Yes, and I've been guilty of not of skipping that step. Absolutely been guilty of it. Yeah, and on the other side of, oh, wait a second. i didn't I'm not agreeing to this. I don't understand you fully, but the agreement is not there.
00:09:09
Speaker
Yeah. And again, this, this isn't ill intention. Sometimes people just, we're running out of time in the meeting or we um are just assuming that everybody's on board because people haven't voiced their concerns. It's so critical to say, all right, can anyone not agree to this? Can you agree? Can you agree? Depending on how many people you might want to go around and ask people individually, do you agree?
00:09:36
Speaker
having that one-on-one clear agreement. It's like I was swaying the other day actually back from Denver and I lucked out. I got an emergency exit row, which is always like score. Until I can travel first class, I will always be accept excited for an emergency exit.
00:09:55
Speaker
And when you're sitting in the emergency exit row, they tell you, this is the responsibilities of your seat. And they say, I need a verbal agreement and eye contact from each one of you. And they go around to all the six people in the two rows. um At least that was the size of my plane. And I was thinking about that. I was like, now they they have a clear agreement from everyone. I was like, oh, look at them following the models. Good job.
00:10:23
Speaker
W United. yeah So then the last part is to document the agreement. This is like, let's write down, here's what we agreed to, these are the details, ah this is the date, this is who was present. Don't rely on memory, you know, no shade, but we don't remember things as good as we think we do. So documenting the agreement,
00:10:46
Speaker
Yes, I completely agree because I am so guilty of that one often. It's like, all right, this is something I'm obviously gonna remember. This is so important. And then on a one-on-one, so I'm like, we built the agreements. We did all the steps. Like, all right, I'm good. we'll We'll touch base next on our next call. Completely forget about it. Three weeks later, I'm like, oh, we were supposed to be doing that. We didn't do it. Drop the ball. Yeah. Yeah. Or what was the date that we we agreed? Yeah. Who was responsible for that? Dunno.
00:11:15
Speaker
Yeah, don't know, don't, move what? And then what happens is that we remember the way that serves us by the time we're trying to recall the memory. We're like, no, weren't you supposed to do that? Wasn't the timeline actually pushed out? Yeah, yeah. Did you spend like five, 10 meetings at the front of a meeting just going over, oh wait, what was that again? Let's remember our, our agreements that we built on that last call. Yeah. So these four steps are,
00:11:45
Speaker
ideally what you want to use when you're trying to work collaboratively. This helps everyone um be on the same page, feel like they have accountability for the decision that's been made, for the agreement that's been made, and that there's a record of it so that we can we can go back to it if we if and when we forget. yeah Now, I kind of dropped my example here because I just did that. But I wanna pick it back up again when I talk about what happens if you get to the part
Handling Disagreements with Curiosity
00:12:17
Speaker
where people say, where you say like, okay, can anyone not agree to that? And someone's like, actually, yes.
00:12:25
Speaker
And here's the important part. We want to create an environment where if people do not agree for whatever reason, they can actually say that in the moment rather than they hold their tongue, they swallow it, they're frustrated and they're like, yeah, whatever. I'm not going to say anything, but no way I'm going to do it. That's just impossible. Or I just, you know, I don't think this is the right approach or whatever it is.
00:12:53
Speaker
So that is where you get just things falling apart and then you gotta to go back and you gotta have a whole conversation again. So as scary as it might be when you're trying to lead a project or a group or a meeting to really try to source disagreement in the moment, it's really like go slow to go faster, better off doing it now than later. So when someone says, nope, I can't agree to that, we've got our advanced steps for building agreement.
00:13:22
Speaker
Because we know this is not always so easy and clean. And so this is pretty simple. The first thing we wanna do is just get curious and say, all right, what's your rationale? Why can't you agree to that? So let's like go way back. I don't know the timer, but I think it was like five or six minutes. You're at 9.55. Oh my God, okay. See how fast it goes? I'm not gonna make it. You can finish this out. You can finish it out. But technically you did it, because the billing agreements was the model, but you went one step further and said, let's do advance. So technically,
00:13:58
Speaker
you You got all of them. You're very generous. We can give a little time for the advanced stuff, so I think it's important. Okay, thank you. Yeah, it's very generous. So let's say you cannot agree. Let's say, for example, um the product manager who proposes this timeline says, okay, this is this is the timeline. This is who's responsible for what. And someone let's say someone in the marketing department, for example, says,
00:14:25
Speaker
You know, I don't actually think that's the best timeline because we've got this major industry event and it moves it up a little bit, but I think that we'll get a lot of we'll get a lot of momentum. we'll get ah There'll be a lot of benefits for doing it this way, doing it on this timeline. So now we've got a little bit of a situation. We've got to take that rationale and figure out can we weave in the rationale that that person has offered you with the original proposal in a way that works for everyone, in a way that everyone can agree to support whatever decision is being made. So we use this tool called add to or take away. So in this example we might say okay well we're going to add to
00:15:13
Speaker
um this proposal for the timeline that it's going to be moved up slightly to align with this industry event. But you know what? Because it's a couple weeks up, we might need to take a few things away. We might need to pull off some deliverables that align with this product launch so that we can get everything done. And that's where the conversation happens. out where the That's where the team says, all right, we're going to add this. We're going to take away that.
00:15:38
Speaker
Now we have a new proposal. And you go back through those steps of, now that we've got this new idea, let's check for understanding. Are we all clear what this means to each of us? Do I know the implications for what I need to deliver? Then check for agreement and then document that agreement. And voila, Taddai, your work is happening, ideally.
00:16:02
Speaker
That was awesome. i ah Even though we went, I think maybe that was 11 minutes so total. 11 minutes total, I don't get that. That's still... check that box. I think you provided a great tool for someone who will hear the outro music and immediately apply building agreements. I hope so. Give it a try. you know You can do this with your partners. You can do this with your peers at work. There's lots of places where you can do this. It doesn't have to be, you know it sounds all formal.
00:16:32
Speaker
But it can be, it can be really quick. Where do you want to go to dinner? All right. Yeah. Is it this Mexican restaurant on that street or that on that street? Okay. Yeah. Great. Do you agree? Great. Let's go. You might not need to document that one. Yep. Document it to make sure you write it down. ah Send me the location in chat. I'm on my way to tacos.
00:16:55
Speaker
Well, love it. Rachel, how is this new, one of the new formats for you?
Listener Engagement and Collaboration
00:16:59
Speaker
I love it. It's fun. It's fun. um ah You know, I want to invite people's questions, add to experiences using these tools. If you want to share, share with us, try these tools out. Let us know how it goes. Let us let me know if there's something I left out for you in being able to be successful so that I can do better.
00:17:19
Speaker
Awesome. Well, it's always great, Rachel. Thank you very much for for this new model. Always great. See you next time, Jake. See you next time. Thanks for listening to Water Cooler Wisdom. This podcast is brought to you by Interaction Associates, a leading professional development and leadership training organization whose mission is to help people work better together. If you'd like to learn more, visit interactionassociates.com. If you have questions, comments, or are interested in collaborating with this podcast, you can email us at watercoolerwisdom at interactionassociates dot.com.