Shout It, Shout It, Shout It Out Loud: Lessons for Leaders from the Health Care Town Halls
You've no doubt seen the videos of members of Congress such as Arlen Specter and Claire McCaskill conducting (or, more accurately, trying to conduct) town hall meetings on health care reform. This seems to be rapidly turning into the summer of the shouters. My friend and blogging colleague John Baldoni picked up on this trend and posted a solid piece this week on how speakers should deal with an unruly crowd. My concern is that with all of the cable TV coverage of the health care shouters, leaders in other domains may soon face more of this behavior in town hall meeting type settings. The health care town halls feel like the latest example of how the bar for what passes as civil discourse in our country keeps getting lowered.
So, with the goal of prepping you for leading and communicating effectively the next time you face a contentious group, I want to recap John's good advice, see what we can learn about what not to do from Senator Specter and share with you a lesson I learned when I had to defend a tax increase to a bunch of beer fueled construction contractors twenty years ago.
John Baldoni offers three tips for leaders who think they might be walking into a verbal shoot out (or should that be shout out?). The short, bold faced tips that follow are John's with my own commentary inserted. Be sure to read John's post to get his take. It's good stuff.
- Be Prepared: John makes the great point that you need to really know your content backwards and forwards before a tough meeting. I would add that an equally important part of the preparation process is to visualize how you want to come across to the group. If you can get a handle on the sort of energy you want to project before you walk into the room, you're much more likely to actually project it.
- Be Flexible: I probably learned the most about this one years ago when I was a regular adult Sunday School teacher. In the group discussions, we would invariably have a few people who would lob verbal hand grenades into the conversation. Over time, I learned that the best way to handle that was to let them say their piece, acknowledge their comment without agreeing and then bring the conversation back to the main theme. Most people in the room appreciated that and would help bring the conversation back to the point with their own comments. Town halls are a different setting for sure (especially when they're filled with people who are coming with the express intent of being disruptive), but I think the principle of flexing by acknowledging without agreeing applies.
- Be Resolute: As much as anything, I think this piece of advice from John is about setting some ground rules up front about how the meeting is going to work (e.g. take turns, questions come from the floor mics and not shouted from the audience, we're going to listen to each other, etc.) and then enlisting the audience's help in enforcing the ground rules. The key is to establish them up front. It's too late to set ground rules once the meeting has gotten out of hand.
If you want to see an example of how not to follow this good advice, take a look at this clip of Senator Arlen Specter getting in the grill of a constituent at a town hall earlier this week. No thought about how a leader should show up, no acknowledgment of the other person and no apparent ground rules. (Ground rule numbers 1 and 2: the speaker should never approach the audience member as if they're looking for a physical confrontation and the speaker should avoid getting into a shouting match with the audience member.)
And, finally, one more piece of advice based on my experience with that beer fueled audience 20 years ago. Keep your sense of humor.
Here's the story. Back in my young adulthood, I was the Deputy Director for the Governor's Office of Community and Industrial Development in West Virginia. Like a lot of political jobs, it was one where I had way more responsibility than I was actually ready for. Early in the administration, the Governor pushed a tax increase through the legislature. A few weeks later, the Putnam County Home Builders Association asked the Governor to speak to their regular meeting. He passed on that opportunity and so did his chief of staff. I was the third string choice to give a speech.
The speech was scheduled for 6:30 pm in a private room at the local Ponderosa Steak House. I showed up about 6:15 pm for what I thought were the closing moments of the social hour before the speech. The refreshments were a couple of laundry tubs of iced-down Coors Lights. Everyone was having a good time. So good, in fact, that they decided to extend the social hour to 7:30 or so. There were plenty of Silver Bullets for everyone. Even in my inexperienced stage of development, I began to figure out that this might be a tough crowd.
When I finally got up to speak at 7:45, the fun really started. It turned out that all that a room full of construction contractors really wanted to talk about was how that tax increase was going to kill their businesses. They made that known loudly and immediately. They could not have cared less about all the wonderful things I had prepared to say about the Governor's plans for economic development.
I'm not exactly sure how or why, but after 10 minutes or so of getting pummeled, I just laughed and said let's acknowledge the obvious that you don't care what I have to say and you tell me what you want me to take back to the Governor and his staff. I think the fact that I was able to keep a bit of a sense of humor was the only thing that saved me that night. It helped get at least a few of the guys slightly on my side.
Showing a little non sarcastic humor in a tense situation can help remind everyone that we're all human beings just trying to do the best we can. It reestablishes connection when it's most needed. I guess what it comes down to is not taking yourself so seriously that you set up an us against them dynamic.
I've rambled on more than usual here, but would love to get your thoughts and experiences on how to handle a tough crowd or meeting.
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
Executive coach Scott Eblin’s goal is to help you succeed at the next level of leadership. Throughout the week, he’ll offer his take on the leadership lessons in the news and his advice on your most pressing leadership questions. A former government executive, Scott is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and is the author of The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success.
First piece of advice; make sure that you as a member of Congress (senator or house of rep's) have done your homework and are 100% familiar with the 2 main pieces of health care legislation in the house and in the senate (don't depend on your staff). It looks bad for you when the attendees know more than you know. It looks even worse when you tell them they are misinformed, that something is not in the bill and everyone else knows it is you who are misinformed because they have read the entire bill and you haven't.
ph Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:58 AMSecond piece of advice; don't ever forget that you are the elected official who works at the pleasure of the voters, not the other way around.
Third piece of advice; leave that inside the beltway arrogance in DC.
Although this piece does have some good points, there are some glaring assupmtions that underpin the writer's viewpoint.
First, the writer assumes that what the mainstream media is reporting is factual. Really? The overwhelming anti-Health Care Reform Town Hall participants are NOT what the administration's spin doctors and Speaker Pelosi say they are and what the MSM reflexively reports in their idolatrous "worship" of the current president.
Secondly, when a speaker comes to a public gathering totally unprepared (e.g., not having read a 1,000 page bill), they should expect to get "nuked" by the audience, even if the audience is basically supportive of the speaker. This "nuking" is better known as "critical thinking."
Third, the federal government continues to be Pavlovian in its "talking points" and spin mentatlity instead of being HONEST with the citizens it works for and to whom the employees of said government are accountable. Senator Specter's "ground rules" of only taking 30 questions from people he represents was a violation of the ground rules his staff had previously set. Again, this goes back to honesty and once an audience perceives dishonesty well, the speaker deserves to be shouted down -- especially if their salary is paid by the taxpayer.
On the Enemies List Too Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 8:17 AMI think a little context is needed here. The American people have tried to talk to Congress through emails, phone calls, and personal visits to their offices. Congress still continues to spend money depsite the fact that the majority of us have asked them not to. How can we pay for all of this? How can we even fund what we have already spent? Sooner or later the bills will come due.
These "unruly" crowds is just the manifestation of their aggravation with Congress. When someone has not listened desite all your past outrage, people resort to shouting. This is simple human nature. Hopefully it is just kept to shouting.
John Weaver Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 8:40 AMI must underscore an earlier comment that a speaker MUST be prepared to speak about a topic and address questions. Folks are starting to realize that these laws being passed by Congress have a large price tag. I believe health care does need reforming, but rushing through legislation (successfully accomplished in last two bailout bills) leaves way too much flexibility in the hands of agencies to write implementing regulations that offend many people and impose the government in more and more aspects of our personal life.
John Herko Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:04 AM"Unruly" - count me in. Just like the previous comments, what do you expect the audience to be when THEIR HEALTH is being decided by people whose health care won't be affected and are too lazy to do the jobs we hired them to do? I think anyone who shows up to address their constituents and has not read the bill, deserves to be questioned.
mike Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:16 AMThe author assumes that elitists should rule commoners and if anyone disagrees, they are either stupid or drunk. When the ruling class seeks to entirely high jack democracy, average people get uptight. Some get upset. Some are willing to appear undignified and be mocked and ridiculed for disagreeing. I am certain that prior to the Revolutionary War, the British elite scorned the rebel commoners willing to fight. "Those damn uneducated, unrefined colonists...what do they know..." They knew the Redcoats were coming and rose to the challenge. At least Arlen Specter had the presence of mind to say, "This is democracy..." whether he believes it or not.
Concerned Citizen Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 3:10 PMKnow the subject matter inside and out. Don't rely on propaganda. Do your own homework. If you don't agree with what you are charged to defend, turn down the speaking engagement. If that will cost you your job, you're obviously in the wrong job and you need to find new work. And above all, respect others. Whenever a speaker fails to do these things, they should expect tough questions every time.
Dan Diviney Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 3:33 PMI find it interesting you so want to believe these people do not represent how main stream American's feel. Got new for you sweetie they are main stream America and we are tired of our Congress not listening when repeatedly they are told to stop spending money we do not have. Send illegal's back where they came from. Stop bailing out private companies. Stop trying to spread my hard earned money around to lazy inept bums, and Government get out of the State, County, City, Township's business and start adherring to the constitution as it was written. Oh and one more thing stop blackmailing state, county, cities, township's into following your mandates or no money honey! That is black in everyone's books.
annie Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 4:11 PMThe town hall crowds aren't unruly - that's just pure slander when congress acts without regard for the will of the people they are supposedly representing. By the way, that doesn't include illegals. Americans are sick of the arrogance of their elected officials in proposing sweeping social change without appropriate regard for input from their constituencies, their tired of their expressed concerns being ignored, their tired of the laziness of elected representatives who simply bow to ideological and dogmatic party lines, and it scares the hell out of them knowing that a mediocre and often corrupted mediocre bureaucracy awaits it's opportunity, following enactment of law, to manipulate and contort congressional intent with the citizen having no recourse. The senators and reps are shouted at because grassroots folk see their government as out of control and being led away from it's foundations in the US Constitution by a sordid group of collectivists, socialists, and Marxists. The premise of the article is just silly and of no more value now than if it had been used for police indoctrination prior to the riots at the '68 Democratic convention in chicago. Those speakers being shouted at deserve exactly what they get. I suspect if it were 1776, there would be a whole lot more than shouting to worry about.
Ken Huffman Posted Saturday, August 15, 2009 11:00 AMI think 90% of the shouters are shills for big insurance. But I like the idea of citizens confronting their elected reps. It would keep the reps mindful of the voters and not just the big lobbyist money men. I hope this starts a trend.
Wise Old Owl Posted Monday, August 17, 2009 2:28 PMyeah, but where have all these indignant complainers been over the last 8 years. What a bunch of tools.
ritgar80 Posted Monday, August 31, 2009 9:44 AMOver the last week, I've watched a number of the health care reform town hall meetings. I, too agree, that health care needs reform, but not in the way the federal government is attempting to do. ALL of our senators and representatives (Congress) should be listening to their constituents; they will definitely be surprised at many, if not most, of the excellent suggestions on how to improve the health care system for all. I also have an observation on the town halls. The ones held by Democratic office holders were very disorganized and became quite unruly with people being escorted out by security. Why? Don't they have a right to ask questions? The meetings held by Republicans were surprisingly quite "civilized" and well-organized; I did not see anyone becoming unruly and escorted out. The news media of today is definitely in the hands of the Democrats as they completely ignore Republicans. The news media is supposed to report the news and events in an unbiased manner. Ever since Nancy Pelosi and her group took over Congress, anything good related to Republicans is glossed over or completely ignored. I have always felt that once a person is elected to Congress, all party affliation should cease. They were elected to do the best for their constituents - no matter what party they belonged to. This is not happening. All members of Congress should be working together for the benefit of the people, not for their own agendas (or a party agenda). The health care reform "bill" is just such an example of how Congress has deserted the American people who elected them to office.
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