I'm sorry to hear you are on a committee with a very vocal member, who is challenging everything you say. While a good back-and-forth debate is healthy for getting to the bottom line of a complex issue, a persistent negative and loud voice can derail a committee's work.
What to do? When I was the chairman of a church governing board (warden of the vestry is the technical term), I learned an important lesson. When you hear a negative voice, go around the table. When you have a loud naysayer, don’t modify your position to accommodate them. Go around the table and ask for each person’s thoughts. The group will correct the outlier every time.
Vocal does not equal representative. Ask for the other voices to chime in one at a time. If they agree with the naysayer, you may want to change your position. But if they disagree, you can move on and proceed with the business at hand. |