In a deviation from the manager questions that I usually answer, I figured a fun “how” article would be a nice change of pace.
This came about after a talk I wrote. In that talk, I wanted to make a distinction between a collaborative and declarative leadership style. Because I believe that learning things is more fun through the lens of what we see as entertainment, I chose the difference between Admiral Holdo from Star Wars: The Last Jedi (declarative) and Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation (collaborative).
Picard’s more collaborative leadership style is a fantastic example and the one I reference most. So today, I want to talk about how Picard utilizes the Ready Room and why it is a helpful leadership tool to adopt.
Wait, the Ready Room?
I’ll need to get this out of the way because I will be forever haunted by giving out wrong or incomplete information. The Ready Room is the captain’s room located on the port side of the bridge. Usually, smaller conversations happen here with whoever has the conn. More of a “come into my office” than a “we need to make a larger decision” type of thing.
It is more correct to say the Conference Room or the Observation Room. This is the room where there are many chairs, models of other ships in Starfleet, and a large display panel for presentations. Looks like this:
“The Ready Room” is a much catchier phrase than “The Star Trek TNG Observation/Conference Room.” Please don’t take my nerd cred.
What do we do in the Ready Room?
The quick answer is: Work with our team to make the best decision with the best information we have at the time.
If you have read any of my other articles, you have probably seen this phrase or a variation of it. It is not meant to be perfect information, it is just what we can gather, with the time we have, so we can keep moving forward.
In Star Trek, they gather the people most knowledgeable about the subject at hand to present. The knowledgeable folks do a short presentation on what the issue is and what possible solutions are and then the rest of the people in the room ask questions. Once we feel we have explored the subject enough, whoever is responsible for making a decision presents one, and the team has a chance to challenge the decision. Once we feel we’ve heard everyone, and made changes if appropriate, we move forward with the result. This can happen multiple times in an episode.
Who needs to be in the room?
In Season 3 Episode 6 of TNG "Booby Trap," the crew finds themselves stuck in an asteroid field after exploring an ancient Promellian ship within it. At this moment, the crew is unsure what is causing the ship to be trapped, thinking it might be some kind of Menthar trap as the Promelians and Menthars were at war with each other. When the crew attempt to leave, the ship seems to be losing power no matter how much they push its engines.
Below is the first time in the episode that they collaborate on what is happening and what possible solutions there are. I’m going to yank the description from Memory Alpha on this as it is an already great summary:
The Enterprise has three hours until energy reserves run out. In the observation lounge, Worf says the radiation strength is inhibiting the sensors, so they can't find the source. La Forge does not yet have an explanation for the energy loss. While there are many records of Menthar battle strategy, Data doesn't know of any mentioning their situation. Riker suggests leading another away team to the ship to check their records; the Promellians knew the Menthars and may have known the cause. As Worf states that the impact of dropping the shields long enough for a transport would be negligible, Picard assigns Data to go with Riker and leaves La Forge to research their energy conservation.
We’ve talked about the RACI model before when talking about handling external requests. Given how useful it is, let’s apply RACI to the folks mentioned so we can see why these particular crew members are in the room.
Responsible
La Forge (engineering), Data (operations), Riker (2nd command)
La Forge, Data, and Riker are Responsible because they are the ones who will be doing the leg work for the suggested next steps. La Forge will explore from the engineering angle to see why the ship’s power is being drained and how to mitigate it. Data and Riker will be on the away team back to the ancient ship to see if more information exists about how the ship became stuck in the asteroid field.
Accountable
Picard (captain)
In this case, only Picard is Accountable. As the ship's captain in a dangerous situation, it falls on the captain to ensure tasks are carried out satisfactorily.
Consulted
Worf (tactical), Data (operations), Riker (2nd command)
You may have noticed that Worf is not assigned any tasks. Worf’s role is to answer questions that are pertinent to his station. This is why he shares the information about the sensors not working and what effects lowering the shields will have on the ship if they attempt to use the transporters again. Worf is the expert in this area and is responsible for its operation, so he needs to be Consulted when trying to determine the next steps.
Data gets to be both responsible and consulted in this case. While Data has tasks at the end of the conversation, he is also consulted on matters because of his encyclopedic knowledge. Data is aware of Menthar battle strategy, and I believe they establish that Data has knowledge of the Menthars (the builders of the ancient ship) early in the episode, so his input is valuable.
Riker is also consulted as the second in command of the ship. Riker has varied experiences from his tenure as an officer, usually leads away teams for exploration, and is meant to be a foil to the captain when necessary.
Informed
In this case, it would be Picard and sometimes Riker who are the Informed. Given they are already in the room, they get to hit multiple points.
This is easier to understand if we only look at La Forge’s task. Neither Picard nor Riker will comment on how that task is being handled. They trust La Forge as the head of engineering to make engineering decisions. Still, they need to be informed on the outcomes of La Forge’s decisions so they can make future decisions as this situation develops.
Nice! The team is assembled, everyone has their roles, and now we have next steps to get us out of this situation. Since this is a TV show, you can probably guess that this is not enough and that there is a new, emerging problem to solve. So again, we go into our Ready Room and do it all over again with our latest set of information.
This loop of Issue, Meeting, Decision, and New Information is the one we consistently do as well. The trick here is balancing how often we meet.
How often do we meet in the Ready Room?
Short answer? Not often.
To continue with the episode as an example, they meet in the observation lounge twice that day. Twice. This is an emergent situation where the world is falling apart around them, and the entire crew could die due to being in this trap.
They meet twice.
To be transparent, they also follow up with each other as they learn things. The captain checks in with La Forge after the second round in the observation lounge. Dr. Crusher meets with the captain to discuss how they can better use the life support on the ship to keep everyone alive, but use less power. People continue to report to the captain as they gain enough information to be reported on.
That is the crux of it though. The captain is Accountable and that reporting expectation is set. The captain is not pulling people away from solving the problems at hand to sit on a Zoom call with 20+ people constantly asking for updates. There are definitely enough crew on the ship to pull a ton of officers of different disciplines that might be able to help, but that is not the point of the Ready Room. You get only who you need, not everyone that might be able to help.
In the context of a TV show, you have fewer meetings with everyone, so you can have individual moments with each of the characters. In the context of a company, you have fewer meetings, so people have the time to perform the actions they are responsible for. They are enabled to either fix the problem or get enough information to come back and help us make better decisions for the next go. We must be intentional about what meetings are scheduled and when so we don’t stop our Responsible folks from doing their essential work.
So, to sum up,
When we are using the Ready Room for making decisions, we are:
Recognizing this is a decision that will affect the team
Intentional about who needs to be in the room (RACI helps here)
Keeping the number of meetings for this decision at an absolute minimum
What does this do?
We make decisions that affect our teams with the help of our teams
We only bring in who we need so our other Responsible folks can keep focusing on important work
We understand what it means to schedule a meeting and keep scheduling at a minimum
I liked the insight on being intentional with meetings and using RACI to focus on who's truly needed (this is a practical takeaway for any team).
The breakdown of Picard's collaborative leadership style was interesting -- I could use continued personal growth in this conflict style. He balances decision-making with minimal disruption to his team, really stands out. It’s a great reminder that effective leadership isn't about constant oversight, but about trusting the right people to do the right work at the right time.