One of the dynamics of small groups is involvement. Whether you are teaching a Bible study or working with a team, getting everyone involved is important. If you only want yes people, people to rubberstamp your ideas, you do not need a team. You only need a few people who can nod their head up and down. But if you want and value input, realizing God speaks to others and that you may not have all the ideas, all the answers, then you’ll need to use approaches that assist and insures every person’s involvement in discussions and debate. Everyone’s involvement carries beneficial results as it engages each person’s higher order thought processes, allows everyone to be heard, produces learning, and brings cohesiveness and agreement through thought and discussion.

When recruiting and assembling a team it is important to inform those being recruited that their thoughts and ideas are not only important but valuable, desired, and necessary for the team to accomplish its goals. When speaking with pastors and other organization leaders about selecting persons to be recruited for a church health team or a planning team, I suggest the following criteria. The people you want and need on this team need to be open-minded, forward thinking, positive people who will share their thoughts and opinions and listen to all others with open mindedness as well. This information should be shared with each person as he/she is being recruited. They need to know the expectations up front, before they agree to serve with you on a team.

Acquiring each person’s input on a particular subject can be as simple as going around the room allowing each person time to share, starting at one end of the room let’s say the person on your right, and moving around the room until every person has been given a chance to voice his/her thoughts. This approach works and is okay in some formats for particular situations. However, you will receive better discussion and draw to a right decision when you learn to foster healthy debate across the team. (see blog post on Healthy Debate & read chapter seven in Turnaround Journey)

When you go around the room calling on each person to respond, they are likely to give their own thoughts and opinions. Team members will not often speak to one another persons ideas. Each person wants his or her ides to be heard. On the other hand, when you as a leader encourage healthy debate team members will discuss pros and cons of each person’s ideas, tweaking, building on, and adding to the ideas that they believe to be a better fit for the organization. This healthy debate will lead the team to a cohesive conclusion and suggestion for moving forward toward implementation within the organization.

There are several ways to encourage and spark healthy debate. Perhaps one of the simplest ways is to throw out a question probing the higher order thought processes of each person in the room. When the first person responds, wait a few seconds to see if someone replies, counters, or adds to the first response. If so your debate has begun. If no one replies to the first response, spark the debate with a second question. “What does everyone else think about that idea?” You can follow up with, “What other ideas do you have?” or “What are other ways we could…?” As the leader, you are the catalyst to move the debate forward. However, be careful not to give your own thoughts on the subject too early. This is a debate closer and you will miss out on good debate and likely miss other good or even greater ideas and suggestions. (see blog post titled The Leader Speaks Last)

Another benefit of insuring the involvement in the discussion of every team member is to come to that conclusion with solidarity. In a situation where every person on the team has had the opportunity to share his/her ideas and thoughts and all have provided input into the suggested conclusion, no one can leave the room and claim, “It’s not what I wanted, but…” A team should always come to a right conclusion and leave the team meeting with unity of purpose, in agreement for moving forward with the team’s decision.

Learn to involve and engage every person on your team or in your Bible study for a more productive implementation of truths learned and effective practices within the organization. For more information on involving everyone in the process contact George Yates and purchase your copy of Turnaround Journey today.