Re: Anonymity in Meetings LO2615

Dr. Ivan Blanco (BLANCO@BU4090.BARRY.EDU)
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 15:30:59 -0400 (EDT)

Replying to LO2586 --

I don't totally agree with the use of anonymity in meetings because, as
Alexia said, it is like conceding thate there would be big fish eating
small fish... I introduced some degree of anonymity in a meeting, but I
think that what I did didn't tell the people present that there were
reasons to have some fear... A few years back, I run an exercise with
offircers of the Caracas, Venezuela Fire Department. This institutions
follows a paramilitary discipline, where there is respect (obedience?) to
instructions given by a "superior" (I hate this term). There is reliance
in military ranks, Sgt., Captains, etc. To conduct this meeting, which
had people with different ranks, and from different functional areas
(which can mess things up even more), I did several things. I asked all
of the people present to take their shirts off. This was not a problem,
because as part of the internal rules every one wears a t-shirt under
their shirt. This allowed me to get rid of ranks, at least for that
particular event. So, instead on using anonymity, I tried to level the
ranks because I took away the symbols (rank symbols are worn on the
shirts). This whole thing was very symbolic, but it worked!

Then, during the rest of the meeting, I also kept tight control over the
phases of the exercise. I did not let any one to make any judgement
during the idea generation stage of the exercise. I was very firm on
this.

THe other thing I did (if the members were not piggybacking on each
other's ideas), was to do the piggybacking myself. I woudl combine
different ideas (re-writing them, etc.), asking the members if they agreed
on my combination, e.g., Am I keeping the original meaning/intention of
the ideas by combining them? With this, I took away individual ownership
for any single idea and transfered that ownership to the team.

I believe that this was a lot more functional and they all left highly
satisfied with what was accomplished in the meeting. That was back in
1984 (?), and there are a couple of the ideas generated in that meeting
still being applied today.

Ivan,

--
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  R. IVAN BLANCO, Ph.D.                        Voice 305 899-3515
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