It pays to encourage your team to complain

It pays to encourage your team to complain

By Professor Megan Reitz and John Higgins (July 2019)

Nobody likes a whinger, someone who endlessly rocks the boat and never opens their mouth except to say something negative. Or someone who persistently comes up with problems (and no solutions) or who, when they say “Can I just say…”, derails the meeting and makes it go on for ever.

As a team leader you probably have some rules of thumb about what you want from your team. Being positive and having a ‘can-do attitude’ are probably a couple of them.

But what happens when you use your power and authority (and as a leader you have it, however “flat” everybody claims the organisation is these days) to shut down the complainers? When you roll your eyes or close up the conversation before the negative voices have a chance to speak out? What happens when only the positive gets talked about?

1. You create a fantasy world. When all that can be spoken of is couched in the positive, real difficulties, doubts and misunderstandings get hidden. People lose the ability to be honest with each other. If you go too far in silencing complaints, avoiding issues that don’t have obvious solutions or shushing people who have the courage to tell it like it is, you can wind-up infantilising people into the attitudes of compliant kids. Your team starts to play by the ‘rules of the game’ – and create a ‘fake believe’ culture that on the surface looks rosy, but underneath is far from it.

1. You cut yourself off from important insights and energy. For a conversation to have legs you need to have naysayers, people who will oppose the views of the majority (or the opinion formers of the group). Complainers can bring with them the power of opposition, be the critical voice which forces ideas to be tested in the fire, to be made more robust. In all walks of life most of the really bad ideas that get implemented are the ones that started off life as being seen as unquestionably good. Complainers, when coming from a place of good intent, are healthy brakes for a team’s groupthink, they’re the ones that have the potential for making sure there’s less haste and more speed.

1. You create a vipers’ nest of bad feeling. Just because complainers get silenced, formally or informally, doesn’t take their feelings away. When complaining gets outlawed, then it turns really negative – into bitching, moaning and whining – the bad BMW of a team.

What then can you do as a team leader to create a culture of healthy complaint within your team so you can tap into a source of useful energy?

1. Make sure the unpopular voice gets heard – and take responsibility for making sure it’s heard well. Coach and support the person to land their ideas so they are seen as constructive rather than destructive. Don’t get seduced into scapegoating the naysayer, because as the team leader you’re the one that sets the tone. Use your power as a force for good in the team, don’t pretend you don’t have it
2. Create time and space for REAL debate to happen – use your authority to become the naysayer if the conversation lacks opposition, or authorise others to play the role of the devil’s advocate. Notice how over-packed agendas and the need to be busy creates superficial focus and consensus
3. See the positive of a complaining culture – people who complain can still be committed to the team; they may still care. They may well be the ones who give a damn and aren’t willing to become actors playing a role, going through the motions.

A team without people who complain is a dead team. Complaining is a sign of life if people are willing to rock the boat and risk reopening the difficult issues others want to believe have been put to bed (but in truth haven’t been). Some of those who complain may be the people on your team who are invested in the team being better than it is – although there are always some who are just bad apples.

When no-one’s complaining, when your team is one of unworldly positivity and harmony, be afraid, be very afraid.

Megan Reitz is Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Hult Ashridge International Business School. John Higgins is a research fellow at Gameshift, a coach and consultant. They are authors of Speak Up: Say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be heard, (Pearson, £14.99).

Author Bios:

Megan Reitz is Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Ashridge Executive Education at Hult International Business School. She speaks, researches and consults to help organisations develop more open, mutual and creative dialogue. She is the co-author of Speak Up (2019). Follow her on Twitter @MeganReitz1

Speak UP, complain, Irish Tech NewsJohn Higgins is an independent researcher, coach, consultant and author. He has published widely with the Ashridge Executive Masters and Doctorate in Organizational Change, most recently with The Change Doctors: Re-Imagining Organizational Practice (Libri, 2014) and is co-author of Speak Up (2019).

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