Polarise, don’t compromise

This might appear to be a counterintuitive idea: to polarise rather than to seek a compromise.

Many people incline towards avoiding tension – that is after all quite natural. As a facilitator you might find that participants want you to help them to avoid the discomfort of tension and to assist the group in finding a quick compromise. The problem with rushing to find a compromise or quick agreement is you risk missing (or avoiding) significant issues that will impact any agreement further down the line.

Important issues may simply need time to surface. Discovering an issue that would impact on a decision at a later stage might result in the need for adjustment, which is no problem if the group is flexible. It may however come at a point where work has been done on an incomplete premise and needs to be re-done or it might mean that the group needs to go back and make a new decision. All of these can be avoided by spending some time in exploring the problem before making quick decisions.

Sometimes issues are ignored or avoided because they are surrounded by tension. The issue does not disappear. The risk with a quick compromise is that the issue inevitably resurfaces – and then with even more tension. In the worst case such an issue and the tension or conflict is bears with it, can sabotage an agreement or a compromise reached by the group.

What do we mean with polarising an issue and how do you do it? You need to first make the group aware of the polarity: “we have some people saying X and other saying Y”. The next step is to get the group to explore the polarity in order to understand what it contains. Once the group feels comfortable to do this, you can use one of a number of methods to make the opposite sides of the polarity clearer. Allow each side to be expressed clearly. You could even exaggerate the polarity in such a process. This has the important result of making it possible for the group to address an issue which would otherwise remain hidden or unexpressed. (You might be interested in reading the short article Make it Safe to Say “No”)

What do you do then? There are a number of options: (links)

• Agree to disagree and explore whether the group can proceed despite its differences
• Make a decision that includes the minority opinion
• Seek to enable those supporting opposing positions to understand that of the other side – creating flow or fluidity
• Negotiate an acceptable solution