Now that would be the dream, right? Unfortunately, there always seems to be that somebody who takes up the most air time, always reacts first and occasionally adding unrelated topics to the conversation. Sounds familiar? Well, you’re not alone.
In an ideal world, the full potential wisdom of a group is leveraged during a session. That doesn’t mean everybody needs to talk for the same amount of time. It does mean that everybody should get the chance to add their perspective, ideas, suggestions, questions and remarks. When there is one (or a few) person(s) overly present in a meeting, that might suppress knowledge because others will become more hesitant to speak up. Especially when the present person is high in rank.
Ranking relates to our relative position in a social hierarchy. A social hierarchy can be anything from group of people in a meeting, a team, an organization, a family, to a group of friends. Your relative position varies in all of these contexts. Rank is based on elements like job title, formal level of power, level of charisma, external features and experience, and varies per culture.
We unconsciously score everyone in a context and determine our own position. This conclusion influences our behavior. For example: if the overly present person in a collaborative modeling session is a CTO with a strong opinion and 20+ years of experience in the company, it might make junior developer more hesitant to voice their alternative view.
This is exactly why it’s so important to be aware of ranking in your contexts. Especially when you’re high in rank. When you’re high in rank and aiming for equal contributions, it means you’ll have to actively share your rank by not talking first all the time, asking others that are lower in rank for their opinion, ask more questions than providing answers, and explicitly value alternative views for example.
Ranking is a complex and sensitive dynamic, but extremely important to understand and observe. Don’t forget to check out Chapter 6 for more in depth insights into ranking.
XoXo CoMo
