The Roman decision-making trick that isn’t Roman or a trick

Many leadership teams don't surface their best objections. Not because people lack them, but because raising them can be hard.

The social pressure to be agreeable is real; leaders are picking their battles, and challenging can at times be career-limiting.

The solution is simple but not easy unless you change your approach.

Here it is.

Before any significant decision, explicitly appoint someone to argue against it.

This works for three reasons.

Groupthink is the default, not the exception.

In hierarchical settings, people read the leader's body language and calibrate their views accordingly, often before discussion begins.

This is one of the reasons Jeff Bezos did two things at Amazon. He resorted to the famous Amazon six-pagers and spoke last during the discussion. He observed that charisma could cover up holes in the logic of a poor PowerPoint and that it was hard to go against the flow.

Interestingly, the Catholic Church coined the term ‘devil's advocate' to counter groupthink when canonising saints, even though Instagram tells me it was a Roman general to adopt the approach.

Making dissent a role removes the social cost.

Inviting disagreement culturally isn't enough. McKinsey calls it the obligation to dissent; De Bono built it into Six Thinking Hats as the black hat. Both work because they make dissent a role, not a personality choice.

When arguing against a plan is someone's explicit job in the room, it removes the social cost of being the one who pushes back.

Rotating the role sharpens the objections.

If the same person always plays devil's advocate, they become the team's designated pessimist, and everyone else stops engaging seriously with the objections.

When the role moves around the room, two things happen: the objections get sharper because different people notice different risks, and the rest of the team can't dismiss the pushback as just one person's temperament.

So, name someone before your next decision. Give them explicit permission to find the flaw.

It will increase the chances that any decision you make deserves to go forward.

More soon,
Davina

Elevate, the book – helps leaders set their teams up to set up a new dynamic across their team that will elevate everyone’s skills, helping the team get better, faster decisions.

Engage, the book – helps individual contributors prepare papers and presentations that leaders can approve without reworking.

Engage, the self-paced course  – supports both individuals and leaders prepare more insightful papers and presentations for senior leaders and boards.

Extreme Clarity, the 2-hour workshop – introduces techniques for structuring your messaging.

Board Paper Bootcamp, the 2-week program – helps you clarify and convey complex ideas to senior leaders and boards.

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