Eating flour right out the bag is not tasty. While I have done it before, consuming raw eggs is not recommended and not tasty. Add to these a cup of sugar, a teaspoon of baking powder, and one of vanilla extract, still is not worthy of our tastebuds. Even mixing them all together with some water or milk will not satisfy the taste palette. However, mix them all together and bake them in the oven for 30 minutes (perhaps with a couple other ingredients), and you may come out with a delicious cake.

To complete the recipe for a tasty cake you must combine all the raw ingredients then allow them to bake for a time. Only then do you have the desired outcome of something delicious to eat. The same is true with decision making. You can pull a group of people together with all the right ingredients for a successful team, but the individual ingredients does not a team make. First, they must be combined, as you would the ingredients for a cake.

However, the secret to a successful team is what comes next. Are you, as leader, a decision maker or a debate baker? Decision makers are those leaders who generally make most of the decisions for their team/organization, then call on the team to implement the leader’s decision for success. Decision makers are creativity squashers and morale crushers. The team may carry out the leader’s wishes, but with disdain and unmotivated.

Debate bakers on the other hand, know how to use the combined ingredients (creativity and experience) of each team member for a quality baking process. Without the correct baking process the cake will never develop. Good healthy debate on issues and topics are the heated oven in which to bake ideas into the desired product.

Debate bakers have learned how to draw out the best qualities from individual members, how to combine the thought processes of all members and to depersonalize individual ideas in order that the team can make great productive decisions. How?

• Learn to use questions formulated to take each mind to higher levels of thought processing. Don’t settle for the run of the mill, “How can we…” questions. Instead ask questions of, “What would it require for…” Questions are perhaps the greatest tool God has given us as leaders, yet we most often squander them on questions that cannot take us to the needed solution. Learn to develop open-ended thought-provoking questions.
• Know the natural thought patterns of all team members. Most people have a routine of thought patterns. Learn how each member thinks then develop your questions to challenge each person’s thought processes.
• Pair team members with other members who have different thought processes and have them discuss thoughts and ideas on the topic at hand. Then have each pair present to the whole team.
• List every pair’s response on a large tear sheet. Lead the entire team in a discussion of the pros and cons of each item listed using properly formulated questions. The team’s discussion should lead you to the one right idea for your organization’s pursuit.

A good healthy debate involves back and forth of pros and cons of ideas. Encourage debate without allowing anyone to belittle or degrade any person in the room or organization. This is the heat in the oven which produces the tasty outcomes that everyone can enjoy.

Be a debate baker for your organization, your team, and your family. Debate bakers will always produce a better tasting outcome than decision makers.

Learn more about formulating thought provoking questions in chapters 6-9, Coaching; A Way of Leadership, A Way of Life.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.