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\u201cNo organization can make good decisions without conflict.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIf everyone is thinking alike, someone\u2019s not thinking.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n We tend to veer away from conflict.\u00a0 <\/span>It can make us feel uncomfortable, or even downright shaken.\u00a0 <\/span>It can inspire anger, anxiety, hurt feelings, and a lot of other negative outcomes.\u00a0 <\/span>So we avoid it.\u00a0 <\/span>We try to play nice and hope everybody else does the same.\u00a0 <\/span>If we can\u2019t say something nice, our mothers taught us, don\u2019t say anything at all.<\/p>\n If we could create such a place . . . a place free of conflict . . . would you want to work there?\u00a0 <\/span>Probably not because it would also be a place free of passion, free of divergent points of view, and free of lively debate.\u00a0 <\/span>It would be pretty boring.\u00a0 <\/span>And it wouldn\u2019t be an industry leader, it would be at the back of the pack.<\/p>\n The fact is, properly managed, conflict moves a business forward.\u00a0 <\/span>New ideas are vetted in the heat of debate.\u00a0 <\/span>Ideas that survive the heat give us confidence that we may actually be onto something here.\u00a0 <\/span>Ideas that wilt under a robust discussion probably don\u2019t deserve to see the light of day.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s the rite of passage that separates the good ideas from the not-so-good.<\/p>\n So how do we manage conflict so that it\u2019s a positive force and not a detrimental one?<\/p>\n It starts with the simple notion that we can disagree without being disagreeable, and we build that simple notion into our culture.\u00a0 <\/span>Mostly that means we have to make it \u201csafe\u201d for people to disagree or to take opposite points of view.\u00a0 <\/span>So we vigorously defend our own position, but we don\u2019t assign unworthy motives to our opponent.\u00a0 <\/span>We assume that everyone is well-intentioned and honestly motivated.\u00a0 <\/span>When people know they can stand up and say what they believe without being castigated or impugned, guess what?\u00a0 <\/span>They will!<\/p>\n As part of any good decision-making process, we need to hear a variety of opinions.\u00a0 <\/span>We need healthy, robust debate that brings out divergent thoughts without getting personal.\u00a0 <\/span>If we manage that well, we get everyone\u2019s best thinking, and when the smoke clears, we\u2019re still friends, colleagues, and members of the same team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cNo organization can make good decisions without conflict.\u201d \u201cIf everyone is thinking alike, someone\u2019s not thinking.\u201d We tend to veer away from conflict.\u00a0 It can make us feel uncomfortable, or even downright shaken.\u00a0 It can inspire anger, anxiety, hurt feelings, and a lot of other negative outcomes.\u00a0 So we avoid it.\u00a0 We try to play<\/p>\n