Organizations are increasingly "flattening" out the hierarchy and working
toward participative and collaborative problem-solving, decision-making,
and planning. Enabling (a good choice of words, Richard) anonymity in
meetings is advantageous and productive under several kinds of
circumstances - for one, when a _team_ must work on organizational goals
and outcomes.
The opportunity to work within a well-constructed, properly facilitated,
anonymity-enabled process (now there's a mouthful!) tends to promote an
uninhibited flow of ideas, some of which might never have seen the light
of day under typical circumstances: complex, often insurmountable
personality issues; poor or non-existent leadership; untrained
facilitation; intimidation by participating authority figures; inability
to "get a word in edgewise" due to the session dominator or due to
unmerciful shyness; fear of what others (the boss) might think; and plain
and simple time constraints.
Yes, Mark C., it might be good to be able to eliminate the sources of fear
that inhibit problems from "spontaneously solving themselves." But think
of the power of successfully working together in a team/group effort. That
success can translate into a better grasp of process beyond the project
because team members didn't _have_ to address those emotionally draining,
energy- sapping culture/relationship/other issues. (Team members often
find that they now have the tools to deal with those issues later in
appropriately constructed exercises dedicated to values identification and
more.)
Anonymity need only "protect" participating individuals. A couple of the
real benefits of anonymity in electronically facilitated meetings are:
1) The group's efforts are truly collaborative and the outcome(s) are the
team's - it is _their_ baby from inception on.
2) If an appropriate record of the proceedings is kept - typically
electronic and/or printed 'minutes' can be provided before participants
leave the meeting - it can preserve the growth and development of all
ideas, including those that are sloughed off as well as those that remain
fundamental to the final plan/decision/outcome.
BTW, if the team is mature enough in its relationship, members can easily
choose to identify with their own ideas and comments; the dialogue can be
attribution-rich. (Mariann J., I think you and I may have said the same
thing in somewhat different ways...)
John Prins
Prins Associates
Branford, CT 06405-6026
-- prins@admin.aces.k12.ct.us 203.483.0737*** *** *** *** *** *** *** planning problem solving decision support
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
I facilitate meetings in which participants sit at networked notebook computers and work their way through carefully constructed exercises that are tailored to meet the client's needs. It's a great tool...
I tried to keep this brief; I hope it wasn't at the expense of clarity.