Photo by Matt Nelson on Unsplash
I live in an area where just about everyone has a dog. When one of the neighbor’s dogs starts barking, inevitably another neighbor’s dog joins in.
I have three dogs myself. It’s usually the older one with impaired hearing and vision that initiates the barking for whatever reason, or no reason at all, and the other two join in immediately without any idea of what they are barking at.
They all seem to celebrate the unity and camaraderie of their rant. Reality typically settles in after a few minutes that it really was nothing, or that it is just me or my wife coming home to feed them.
I hope if there is a real threat, the dogs are as united and vocal. And I wonder how many times I’ve scolded them when they were actually barking at something to be reckoned with.
People and teams can demonstrate the same behavior, and potentially drive the same “boy who cried wolf” result. That can be devastating because there is tremendous value in differing insights and opinions. They need to be heard.
In order to avoid barking dog syndrome, I suggest the following.
If you are the initiator, make sure that you are acting on facts or good information. If it is a subjective area, follow Stephen Covey’s advice and seek first to understand, and then be understood. In any case, get enough information to make an informed decision within an acceptable range; if we have less than 40% of the information needed, it’s not much better than a guess and if we have more than 80%, we’ve waited too long. The rest of the world already knows what we know. The world needs initiators that lead us in the right direction. Leaders don’t always get it right because they operate within the 40% to 80% range described above, but they know that there is more risk in keeping quiet until they have 100% certainty.
If you are not the initiator, avoid the impulsive reaction to join in. Do your homework on the issue first. Your input is just as valuable and can potentially spare yourself and your team a lot of energy and time. Again, seek first to understand, and then be understood. If you disagree with the initiator, voice your opinion.
If after fully vetting and agreeing on the issue, its implications and that it is in fact a threat, please bark, scream, rant and lobby until you get to the right place. We all benefit from that.
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Brian Amann can be reached at 303.921.5310 or send an email.
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