Loyal Dissent

By: Exclusivia Team

“If two people never disagree that at least one of them is not thinking critically or is not speaking candidly….“There is no conflict between honesty and loyalty. In order to be loyal, we must be honest.””- Adam Grant

In business, relationships, even politics. Disagreement should be welcomed and embraced. It stimulates idea flow. A couple more points on making this healthy and productive:
1. It requires strong emotional fortitude and self knowledge to welcome disagreement. Most disagreement is not a personal attack on your permanent character. It’s usually disagreement how to live out values.

2. It needs to come from a place of caring for the individuals and the collective. Just because we disagree, it’s still “we” not “you vs I”.

3. The greater good must be kept front and center. If we care deeply about our family, our company, or our country we must want those “units” and individuals that make up the unit to be successful because of our discussion.

“It’s important to have the same core values, but it’s healthy to disagree about how to live out those values.”- Adam Grant

Dr. Bill Anton from CEO Effectiveness says that it’s good to have some “Loyal Dissenters” in an organization. People who are not afraid to speak up, offer solutions, and think critically in service of the greater goal and well-being of the group.

Jeff Bezos says “disagree and commit”. It means during the brainstorming process, we should welcome constructive disagreement. But once a decision is made, we all need to move forward committed to doing our very best to make the plan work, even if we disagree with it.

I once asked a basketball player what is the best offensive strategy to play? The answer is the one that everyone commits to. There are many paths to success, but there will surely not be success without great collective commitment.