This time a year ago, we voted in the Referendum when the polls suggested the UK would vote to remain in the EU. One year after we went to the polls it is still far from clear what our departure from the EU will look like. It is safe to suggest therefore that when we went to the polls on 23 June last year we certainly couldn’t have known what voting to leave would lead to and entail. So why did so many of us vote for the unknown?

A recent article* in the Harvard Business Review by Roger Martin** gives a fascinating perspective on consultation exercises, be they with the electorate, shareholders, customers or members of an organisation. The key issue according to Prof Martin is not the question being asked but the question the respondent answers. These two are often very different! The recent General Election result also took many people by surprise. The Prime Minister thought she was asking voters if they preferred her party to the opposition parties, but at least some of the electorate voted on whether they trusted the Prime Minister. So perhaps a good number of the 52% of us who voted to leave the EU, were actually expressing dis-satisfaction with the EU. The electorate saw through the charade of Mr Cameron’s re-negotiation of the UK’s relationship with the EU and voted against that charade.

All this matters, it really matters, for at least a couple of reasons. Firstly because much is made of the will of the people in a democracy but the will of the people must be expressed against a clear question. Secondly, in a mature democracy we can do better than resort to simple dualism (ie yes or no) – most of our choices lie along a spectrum of possibilities. Our politicians will hopefully do their best to find a way through the current muddle. The Prime Minister was at least right when she said she opposed the ‘coalition of chaos’ that to her was represented by the Leader of the Opposition. We don’t have that, we just have the chaos without the coalition (!) as we await a possible deal with the DUP.

This has a ‘read across’ to our businesses. When we consult our staff or customers or other stakeholders, it is worth us preparing carefully. We need to get inside our respondent. We must so empathise with them in order that we increase our chances of hearing the question they are answering. If we don’t do this, we are in danger of introducing risk into the organisation – when our motive in the consultation is to do the opposite and reduce risk.

As we mark Brexit, one year on, this can be a good time to reflect on how we consult in our own situations. Our politicians have shown us pretty clearly how not to do it so at least we have that as a good starting point!

David

*13 June 2017 edition

**Roger L. Martin is a professor at and the former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He is a co-author of Playing to Win (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013).