How does your team review the ideas or proposals? Craft a proposal, elucidate the motivation, assess the risks, develop a plan, and then what? Do I need to create a PowerPoint slide, present to my teammates for half an hour, answer their questions for another half hour, hear the honest feedback. After that, we vote & decision is made. Well, if this is how thing is organized within your team, something wrong will be happened.

Well, I don’t say that the process won’t work. But there are several problems with this process

• Overload. Regardless that how crucial your proposal is, many meeting attendees has their own interesting & priorities. You can’t expect them to concentrate fully on your idea or actively engage in the discussion. And some might be lazy by default.
• Incompetence. No matter how talented your teammate are. Expect them to chew up every detail of your proposal & provide meaningful feedback is unrealistic. More likely they’ll provide you judgements based on personal feelings toward you.
• Friendship. The decision-makers are your colleagues. It’s a challenge for them to provide unbias feedback. They can’t risk upsetting a friend. Very few can maintain both honesty & friendship.
• Jealousy. Because you’re the one who make the proposal, it inherently becomes a contest for resources. You’re seeking either a project budget or relocation of team efforts. This puts you in opposition to others at the meeting.
• Fear. If you’re the one presenting today, someone else might be in your shoes tomorrow. The same individuals critiquing your idea today might face similar scrutiny tomorrow.

Considering those factors, it’s not an surprise that at the end of such those meetings - if the decision goes against you - you might feel frustrated. You might view your team as lacking professionalism and feel that your talent is wasted. Best case scenario: you decide to not present any new proposal. Worst case scenario: you begin seeking out a new team.

DISCLAIMER: the opinions expressed within the content are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of any organization.