It sounds like your recent meetings have been death spirals. And no one wants to speak up in brainstorming sessions in fear of being shot down.
A consultant colleague told me the following story [1]: In this one organization, new ideas were not getting discussed. During company meetings, managers would often throw out a comment like "that wouldn't work here" that would kill the conversation. It was as if the manager threw out a grenade that exploded. No one dared to talk about this elephant in the room. So the consultant made a bunch of grenade pins and handed them out at the beginning of the meeting. Then he instructed the attendees, that whenever a "grenade" comment was made, anyone could throw out a grenade pin that would neutralize the explosive. They could then safely talk about the issue on the table, listening to all insights, the pros and cons. This was what true brainstorming was about.
Calling out and stopping idea-killing comments is something successful teams do, especially when they are starting out. |