Allow everyone to speak
Whether you’re the facilitator or just a participant, as the company leader, you cannot manipulate the conversation. To ensure you’re not controlling the discussion, you need to allow each person in the room to have his or her say.
“That comes down to issues of character and honesty,” Mallory says. “You have to not just take the easy way out when the wind starts blowing in some direction.
“If someone is sitting there with their arms crossed with a skeptical expression on their face, you have to read the audience and you have to maybe call them out very specifically, ‘George, what do you think about doubling the size of the company in five years? Is that goofy?’ You ask questions like that. People have an obligation to participate at that point.”
You want people to contribute. You want them to offer their honest opinion. So when they speak, you have to respect what they say. That’s how others feel comfortable joining the conversation, and that’s how you achieve the best outcome.
“In fairness to folks, very often they’re asked to participate in these discussions and people don’t really want to hear their answer,” Mallory says. “Respect their opinion. Don’t yell at them when they tell you something you don’t want to hear. … They have to understand that their opinion is valued and it has to be real.”
A large part of the process is listening and observing. Mallory allowed ample time for everyone to talk, he called on those who were quiet and he asked questions to understand the thinking of the most skeptical. But he also put weight into what those who he most respects were saying.
“You say to yourself, ‘Every one of these people are good at what they do, but there are four or five people whose opinions that if I was going to be buying a car, sending my kids to school, I’d ask their opinion,” he says. “You want to make sure at the outset those people are sitting there looking vaguely disquieted. They’re saying, ‘Boy, I don’t know, maybe yes, maybe no.’ When you’ve got really thoughtful people in significant numbers going, ‘Oh, maybe yes, maybe no,’ you’re in the neighborhood.”
Mallory and his team ultimately decided that Baker wants to be a top 20 engineering design and construction management firm by 2014. Plus, it wants to more than double its 2009 revenue of $445.2 million to become a billion-dollar company.
Mallory describes what the statement of strategic intent has meant for Baker in one word: focus.
“Every one of us in the company, and I think deep into the company, can say to themselves, ‘I’m thinking about doing this. I’m thinking about changing this process. I’m thinking about buying this. Does it support me, us, all of us getting to that goal?’” he says. “It gives you a tool you can use. Focus is the most important thing.”
How to reach: Michael Baker Corp., (412) 269-6300 or www.mbakercorp.com
