is there any way to talk to a new boss about...

[Anonymous]

I've got a new energetic and very likeable boss. He has a lot of ideas. He's implementing most of these ideas via committee, which means no one is really in charge, there's a lot of discussion, a lot of follow ups don't happen because no one has ownership, this confusion requires more discussion, etc. We're a small non-profit. I want to give him some feedback, but don't know if this is career suicide. I was thinking something along the lines of:

the new ideas are welcome and exciting. i'm most likely to succeed at doing any of these if i can play less of a role in the ideas for which i am not playing a central role and if i am given leadership responsibilities for one of two of these ideas.

I'm worried this sounds too vague, and not specific enough about the problem. But I'm worried if I articulate the problem, I'm basically volunteering myself as chief troublemaker, etc.

Any thoughts about this?

[Anonymous]

As painful as this is, I would sit and let things happen for a while and then set up some time for EVERYONE to debrief and reflect. Some of these idea may work out. And others may fall apart based on the reasons you've stated. Others in your group may feel the same. Do it as a group and reflect together about what worked and what didn't. It's at that time you can share how the ideas were good and how the PROCESS needs tweaking.

[Anonymous]

Why not volunteer to take some notes at the meetings & circulate them afterwards with action items & who they are assigned to? If no one is responsible for an action item, literally write the action item followed by ": WHO IS HANDLING THIS?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not volunteer to take some notes at the meetings & circulate them afterwards with action items & who they are assigned to? If no one is responsible for an action item, literally write the action item followed by ": WHO IS HANDLING THIS?"

Great suggestion. My other suggestion would be to volunteer afterward. Go to his office and say "Dave, that new widget analysis that's in the offing, I'd like to volunteer to head that up."

[Anonymous]

You can jump in to the role of PM but if there is no business owner of the goal, it will still likely fall flat, regardless of the amount of tasks you communicate to the team. During the project, if you see others aren't stepping up, you can bring this up to your boss, let them know of the challenges and tasks not being completed and have the conversation that they lack ownership. Perhaps this will drive them to have that discussion.