Academic

Consensus about Consensus?

By Jacqueline Lipton

I've been reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni) which is marketed as a "leadership fable" based largely on corporate life although it may have some interesting applications to academia.  Three things I found notable about Lencioni's theory of good leadership strategy that seem to run counter to things I hear in academia:

1/ While I've heard in several dean searches about the importance of "consensus-building", a lot of academics seem to think that this means everyone getting what they want, or everyone agreeing on the same thing.  Lencioni suggests that "consensus-building" should not be a management goal, if that's what it means.  He notes that "Great teams understand the danger of seeking consensus, and find ways to achieve buy-in even when complete agreement is impossible.  They understand that reasonable human beings do not need to get their way in order to support a decision, but only need to know that their opinions have been heard and considered." (p 207)  How many of us in academia understand this as the meaning of consensus?

2/ Lencioni also questions the importance of gathering perfect information before making decisions, noting that "dysfunctional teams ... try to hedge their bets and delay important decisions until they have enough data to feel certain that they are making the right decision" (p 208).  Sound familiar to anyone?  Although, again, he is talking about the corporate world where most decisions are in fact reversible - people can be hired and fired and strategies can be discarded and replaced.  I would suggest that maybe academia is different, at least with respect to hiring and promotion decisions where tenure is concerned, including (dare I say it) the very important appointment of a dean.

3/I was also interested in Lencioni's definition of "politics" as it pertains to the workplace.  Most of us talk about "faculty politics" at one time or another, but have we ever tried to define it?  I kind of liked Lencioni's definition:  "Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think." 

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on September 21, 2009 (boomark / email).