There are a number of ways to answer this question. The short answer is yes! In this post I will give you some tips on what to do in a meeting. In another post I will help you create some context for these kinds of dilemmas and guide your thinking.

Here’s a recap of the situation my friend, Alan, encountered. Alan had been in a meeting with a colleague, Amy, who was proposing that one of their working teams could meet a particular goal with fewer resources than had been offered in the past. Alan was on board with the effort but felt that the resources needed to be higher to support the project’s success. He questioned Amy’s decision on resource allocation and cited several recent examples.

Amy eventually said that Alan wasn’t being collegial or collaborative anymore, because he was disagreeing with her. Alan was left wondering how to challenge without alienating someone.

Collaboration typically refers to the process of a group of people working together in the pursuit of a shared goal. The verb “challenging” often refers to an act of questioning or to taking exception to something. These two notions are not mutually exclusive. It’s important to explore issues thoroughly before making decisions; one process is to engage in divergent thinking before you converge or make a decision. Groups need to be able to disagree and have healthy conflict in order to work at their best. In a very real sense, to do good collaborative work together you must be able to exchange ideas, perspectives and differences in healthy ways.

In a meeting when you want to question someone and still be seen as collaborating, it’s helpful to:

1. Make your intentions clear. Before countering or questioning, especially if you feel some resistance, declare your intention. “I am in support of this (whatever it is) and I want to be sure we do this really well. My questioning or thoughts are an attempt to help us do this project really well.”
2. Make sure they see you as aiming for the same goal. Acknowledge where you agree with them or support them first. You want them to perceive you as on their team.
3. Focus on the problem or content and not the person. This is not personal. Keep the dialogue on the task or issue. Imagine it as something on the wall. “Let’s look at this question together.”
4. Ask for permission to ask questions or delve deeper. Getting another person’s verbal permission makes them responsible for engaging the conversation and makes them more open to listening.
5. Be sure you have thoroughly understood their position. Before you challenge or question, be sure they feel you have heard them. You might ask clarifying questions and then restate their position in order to be sure you are both on the same page.
6. Then ask if you might offer a different perspective in order to broaden the thinking and ensure that the project goes well. Using Alan’s example, you might say, “While I support your efforts at being more mindful of resources, I am wondering how this other data or experience might inform our decision?”

If the meeting still does not go well, you have another opportunity. You can go see the person after the meeting and ask them to debrief with you. In private, you might be able to explore the dynamics in a less threatening way. Tell the person that you are concerned about what occurred and ask when it would be a good time to talk. Many people are more comfortable with these kinds of conversations when they are in private and they have had time to reflect. In this conversation, you might ask them how they would like to be approached in the future when you have questions or concerns.

Remember, too, that you can only control how you are behaving. You can only make your intentions clear and offer to modify your approach if that would help. The other person has to take responsibility for how they receive you.

A client of mine—let’s call her Sally—gave me a great example.

A woman in Sally’s organization named Deborah, who is higher in rank, was regularly going to Sally’s boss and complaining about her. Sally was frustrated with this behavior and was worried about how it might endanger her reputation. Sally had tried a number of approaches to head off those conversations about her, including asking Deborah to come to her directly if she had any concerns. Sally had also gone to her boss and requested that her boss ask Deborah to go directly to Sally. Nothing was working. Sally felt powerless. How could she stop those conversations?

Sally was trying to solve the problem by dealing with it from a damage-control perspective. What if there was another way to look at it?

I asked Sally what her biggest fear was; she said that her reputation with her boss would be damaged. So, I asked, “What do you really want?” Her response was quick. “I want my boss to think I am doing a good job.”

I then asked Sally, “How does your boss evaluate your work, and where does she get her information?” Sally replied, “It’s based on my work performance and I am not sure where she gets her information.” Then she said, “I have been so focused on stopping these interchanges between my boss and Deborah, that I never thought about how I could give my boss positive information.”

With a new perspective Sally decided to take a completely different tack. She decided not to deal directly with Deborah’s behavior but instead to build her own credibility with her boss in other ways. She set out a plan to bring good news to her boss. Sally now uses her weekly meetings with her boss to deliver a summary of her division’s accomplishments and her own progress on important matters. Sally also sends her boss any acknowledgements of good work she or her division receives. So Sally’s boss now has a regular flow of information that shows how well Sally and her division are performing, and Sally feels confident that her boss has a fairly well balanced flow of information about her.

Sally demonstrated the power of shifting her perspective. The next time you feel that you are stuck in a repetitive pattern that is not getting you the results you want, try these suggestions:

1. Ask yourself what it is you REALLY want. Dig a bit to uncover the positive outcome you are seeking. If you want someone else’s behavior to change, then ask what that change would get you. The answer to that question is closer to what you ultimately want.

2. Stop focusing on the negative and look for the positive. We tend to focus on where we are having problems and that often leaves us feeling demoralized. Shift your perspective to what is working. Seeing the positive or even looking for the positive will help bring a new perspective.

3. Try on other views of the problem. Name the perspective you are in and then ask yourself what another perspective might be. If that doesn’t come easily to you, ask yourself how another person—someone you respect—might look at it. Think of something in nature, and ask yourself what it would think of this? Try on as many other viewpoints as you can and see which one feels best to you. From there, look for a new approach.

4. Break the problem down into smaller chunks. Sometimes we have a problem that is very complicated or has many elements. Don’t try to solve them all. Identify the various components and try to isolate one issue that is more manageable. Begin there.