As a proposer, how should I address participant objections?

When a participant objects to your proposal, they’re indicating that something isn’t safe-to-try for them. As a proposer, you have two options:

• Make edits to the proposal based on the objecting participant’s reasoned objection. If you decide to make edits that would make the proposal safe-to-try for the objector, ensure those changes don’t make it unsafe for others (including you!).
• Continue a dialogue with the objecting participant to better understand their concerns. When someone makes a reasoned objection, they’ll highlight the text in question and make a suggestion for how to change it. As a proposer, you can respond directly and continue a dialogue by clicking on their suggestion, typing in your response and clicking “Save”.

Once you’re done, respond to participants who objected to let them know how you’ve decided to handle their objection, and submit the proposal to the team again for consent. If the same person objects again, you may want to ask to discuss the issue synchronously (via chat, in a meeting, etc) to see if you can resolve the issue.

Participants will be given three opportunities (decision rounds) to consent or object. If the proposal is objected to three times, it will revert to your drafts, where you can either edit and repropose or save it for another time.

📚 Related content

• What does it mean to object?
• What happens when a participant objects to a proposal?