1 Strong Way to Ignite Productive Brainstorming for Your Project

With the project team, it is critical to know when to use the active voice and when to use the passive voice.  The purpose of this article is to cover how to use the right words to ignite super-productive brainstorming.  Communications in team meetings is covered under LEAD under People in the MPM model.

Communications in team meetings is covered under LEAD under People in the MPM model

Use the Active and Passive Voice Appropriately

Active voice means that what your sentence is about is doing the action; the subject of the sentence performs the verb’s action.  

Passive means that what your sentence is about is being acted upon; the subject is acted on by the verb.

Speaking to a team member: 

• Active: “Did you complete the task that you had due this week?”.
• Passive: “How did things go towards completing the task due this week?”

Use an Objective View to Ignite Brainstorming 

An Active voice can be very directive and engaging, but it can also put team members on the defensive.  

If the team is wrestling with certain project challenges causing potential issues in task completion, and someone is trying to do their best; it can be more productive to brainstorm on the best solution rather than putting someone on the defensive because their tasks were not completed.  

Use an objective view to create a productive brainstorming environment

To facilitate a collaborative, brainstorming environment, take the person out of the equation and put some distance between them as a person and the deliverable so they are not seen as owning the deliverable.

What this does is allow them and the rest of the team to view the task or deliverable they were working on in an objective way, rather than making it inseparable from them.  

I like to think of it as putting the task or deliverable on the table, so to speak, separating it from any one person, as if it were an object and view it from any number of angles to understand a better solution.

Objective Brainstorming Needs Strong Facilitation 

When the team is brainstorming it is important to listen for words being used by all team members to ensure that what is being pursued is first and foremost understanding the problem and then defining a workable solution.

Once the decision about the solution to the problem has been agreed upon, or at least the team has reached the consensus that it is the best option at this time, then responsibility can be assigned, and the object can be re-attached to someone.

The person who has the new assignment to implement the solution to the problem may not be the one who came to the meeting with the problem they couldn’t solve. 

The team may need to shuffle responsibilities depending on the most appropriate assignment of people to tasks for the upcoming week.

I have experienced a team member coming to the meeting with a problem they could not resolve that was their task from the previous week.  I separated them from the problem, brainstormed with the team on the best solution and we reached a consensus.  

It was realized at that time that someone else would be better to finish the task with the new solution.  So then, the team collaboratively shifted around responsibilities and the person who walked in with the task they couldn’t finish had new tasks to do when they left and someone else had taken over what they had been working on.  

Facilitation is building bridges to the destination

But because of the objective separation to find a solution, that team member’s pride and self-worth was intact because the entire team together, objectively, created the bridge from where they were to where they needed to be, and it wasn’t a problem owned by any one person.

Summary

With the project team it is critical to know when to use the active voice and when to use the passive voice.

Three things to consider with language when managing the team:

1. Use Active and Passive voice appropriately
2. Use an Objective View to Ignite Brainstorming
3. Objective Brainstorming Needs Strong Facilitation

Action Steps / Apply This Knowledge

1. Look at some recent emails or communications between yourself and another team member.  Identify active versus passive voice and feel how the tone of the communication changes between the voices.
2. In your next team meeting if someone comes to the meeting with their tasks not complete and is struggling, apply the three steps listed in the summary. 

Learn More

Links to other relevant articles.

In an upcoming workshop, for which you can subscribe to be notified when it’s available, we cover project management examples in detail.  

Also, in the workshop, we go into greater depth on many of the project management items in the MPM model.  As well you can ask questions about any of your current projects during the Q&A. 

LEAD – Active vs Passive 

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