That awkward moment, when you ask “Shall we try that?” and the most response you get is mumbling… You’re not quite sure what to make of it. It usually means that nobody is opposed to the idea, but does anyone want it? So you end up hanging in the air with a non-decision and just continue with other stuff. Sounds familiar?
Well, you can kiss that good bye. A colleague of mine introduced an extremely simple, yet effective, technique in our company: In such situations everyone is encouraged to loudly ask “Was that a decision?” That one question gets enough silent or mumbling people to voice a “yes” (albeit not resounding) to make it clear to everyone, that a decision has indeed been taken. I see a definite improvement although only about 5 out of 35 people picked up the habit of asking that question.
PS: If you’re not interested in just a “yes”, but degrees of support, try Fist-of-Five (in German).