Socially Disagreeable - The Power of Social Media to Innovate

 Last week, Ron Ashkenas wrote a post 'Is Your Culture Too Nice?' about the risks of being too agreeable. It's something I think about a lot because it seems that while our culture is increasingly polarized, we are able to disagree politely less and less.  I went to a women's college and we often discussed how the culture was too 'nice' and that it affected our ability to learn - of course we all agreed but didn't always do anything about it and I certainly think it affected how quickly we learned.

The problem is that nothing groundbreaking comes from agreement or avoidance. If you want to leap productivity curves, you have to understand others that disagree, engage them, and be open to being convinced.  You need to hash things out and come up with a compromise between all the affected parties - which is what reduces the risk of innovation. But if a group agrees too quickly they will either take a leap and ignore the risks or not do anything at all.  Major productivity gains and learning simply do not occur without disagreement.

How do we foster a culture of disagreement that is comfortable?  It comes back to trust - trusting that there will not be negative consequences (personal, social, political, or economic) for arguing.  Social media can help leaders who want to foster innovation see those within the organization who are presenting differing opinions and engage them when their direct supervisors and peers may not. Of course, that relies on leaders to seek out the disagreeable. When is the last time you sought out a discussion with someone you knew had different opinions then yours and had an argument?  It's a skill we should all sharpen on a regular basis.

Think arguing is a bad idea?  Feel free to disagree!

Comments

[Ryan Tracey]

Yes, being too agreeable is counter productive to idea improvement. On the flip side, I also think that being unreasonably disagreeable is just as bad. Case in point: http://is.gd/eQ5l4 An effective community will strike a balance.

[Jack Vinson]

This is something that needs to come from the leaders in the organization (both titular and those by agreement). It has to be okay to disagree without fighting. I think this is something we don't see very well in popular culture.

[Drstevelewis.wordpress.com]

No I totally disagree...just kidding!
Working with actual conflict can provide valuable insights into ourselves too. Although scary, we learn so much, and if our feers are handled well, conflicts actually decrease and creative working increases.