Please use part of article provide to answer questions $3-12$ & $3-13.$ Please include article data to support your statements. Thank you. A week later, in a meeting with Bill Crosby, one of the senior managers in his department, Les decided to get his manager$$s views on how to involve junior managers in decisions and how to encourage their ideas on various topics.

$$I notice that in most meetings only the senior managers seem to participate in discussions,$$ Les began. $$I$$m eager to have more input on some ideas I have for a new marketing plan, and I$$m wondering how I can get junior managers and staff to contribute in our meetings.$$

Bill hesitated before saying, $$Sometimes staff are reluctant to put forward ideas when their bosses are in the same meeting. Perhaps you should have some of the senior managers solicit ideas in their own staff meetings and then bring these to the meeting with you.$$

$$But what about the synergy we can create if we have people from different levels discussing an idea together? Especially if the idea will affect the work staff are expected to do$.$ I think there$$s too much separation of people by level in our department. I$$d like to eliminate some of the impediments to collaboration that hierarchy creates,$$ Les said. $$What are your thoughts on how to do that?$$

$$I$$ll need to take some time to think about that,$$ Bill said. $$Maybe we can talk about it in our next one$-$on$-$one.$$

Later that day, during lunch with one of his peers in the company cafeteria, Bill brought up his discussion with Les. $$He wants to eliminate some of the barriers that the hierarchy puts in the way of collaboration,$$ Bill began. $$What exactly do you think he means by collaboration? We all get along just fine as far as I can see. We cooperate when we need to$.$ And I really don$$t know how to get staff to speak their minds if they don$$t want to$.$ I don$$t feel comfortable forcing anybody to be part of a discussion in a meeting if they prefer to just listen.$$

At the next all$-$staff meeting, Les began by handing out a sheet with five topics on it$.$Rather than following one of our regular agendas today, I thought we might do a little brainstorming on the topics I$$ve outlined here. As you can see, these topics all relate to marketing, and what we come up with in our discussion can go a long way toward finalizing that plan.

$$And here$$s a twist on our usual meeting protocol: instead of my leading the discussion, I$$m going to assign one of these topics to five people and let you take over the discussion.$$

In thinking about the meeting afterward, Les decided that although it hadn$$t been a complete success, he thought he had made some progress in getting increased participation. When one of the senior managers requested a meeting a couple of days later, Les was surprised at the manager$$s comments about the meeting.

$$I$$m sure you were sincere in your request for ideas from everybody but I need to tell you that you made a lot of people very uncomfortable. Staff are not used to leading a discussion with senior managers present. When that staff member is leading a brainstorming session and has to tell a manager that he$$s out of order because he$$s criticizing someone$$s idea, you$$re putting the staff member in a really awkward position.$$

$$I guess I don$$t understand,$$ Les said. $$The whole point of doing what I did was to break down the barriers that make people feel uncomfortable. I think everybody has good ideas, and I$$m trying to figure out how I can get them to share those ideas. I thought putting people in different roles would be helpful.$$

At his next meeting with Tom Sanchez, Les expressed his frustration with achieving as much as he hoped for when he started.

$$It just seems as though I$$m being stonewalled at every turn. In fact, I$$ve heard that several people are thinking of transferring to another department,$$ Les said. $$What am I missing? I$$ve done things just like I do at GOC$-$Sydney, but the results are not the same.

$$Maybe I can make some progress when I get back after vacation. Sometimes three weeks away helps give a different perspective on things.$$

$$Yes$,$ Les,$$ Tom began, $$we$$ll need to talk about this when you get back from vacation. Three weeks is a pretty long time for a senior manager to be gone, but I know you and your family have plans to visit a lot of the national parks in the west, so I reluctantly approved your request. Have a good trip and I$$ll talk with you when you get back.$$

When Les returned from vacation, Tom Sanchez was out of the office for a week and they didn$$t have a chance to meet before Les got word that his mother had passed away suddenly and that he needed to return to Sydney for the funeral. As he headed for Sydney, Les wondered how he could explain to his former boss in Sydney the problems he was having at GOC headquarters.