Spirit, Attitudes and Culture

The values, behavior, and interpersonal skills of the individuals involved in consultative decision making create the basis for an enabling environment. There is also need for positive energy to be created in the group. Kolstoe ¹ gives an example of how an individual “had a way of bringing out the best thinking of others and facilitated good com¬munications that led to good decisions.” The spirit of this person, “uplifted and reoriented the group, helping them make the best of a bad situation.” Continuing, Kolstoe states that “joyful enthusiasm and an optimistic outlook go far in finding fresh ideas. Is important to be ‘realistic,’ but it's just as important to put aside gloomy and pessimistic views and find ways to make things work.” Finally, ‘humor often opens the door to the best ideas in an otherwise serious and somber meeting.’

Barrett discusses the necessity for a group to have a positive culture, where the culture is defined as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a company or corporation (or group).  A positive culture would be characterized by employees willing to share their creativity and knowledge with the group or company. When there is an alignment between employees’ values and the organization’s values, a positive culture is observed, and employees are more willing to share their ideas. When there is a poor cultural environment characterized by fear, control, bureaucracy, territorial behavior and manipulation, employees do not feel encouraged to share their ideas and are reluctant to go the extra mile.  Cultural transformation in an organization, implying a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of organizational culture to achieve dramatic improvements in critical measures of performance such as commitment, motivation, empowerment, emotional intelligence, innovation and creativity may be necessary.

Whatever other culture measure is used, agreement in the group is fundamental. “...it is better that all should agree on a wrong decision, than for one right vote to be singled out, inasmuch as single votes can be sources of dissension, which lead to ruin. Whereas, if in one case they take a wrong decision, in a hundred other cases they will adopt right decisions, and concord and unity are preserved. This will offset any deficiency, and will eventually lead to the righting of the wrong.”