I finally watched Margaret Heffernan’s Ted Talk today over lunch, ‘Dare to Disagree‘. [view interactive transcript here]
Something from her talk struck me: “So how do organizations think? Well, for the most part, they don’t. And that isn’t because they don’t want to, it’s really because they can’t. And they can’t because the people inside of them are too afraid of conflict.”
Too afraid of conflict. Think about that for a moment and then imagine how different our communities, organizations, relationships, careers, and world would be if we spoke our minds like true thinking partners vs. echo chambers. There can be no positive change if we all are afraid to work toward becoming better thinking partners.
Over the years I have been no stranger to conflict and sharing my opinions. I haven’t always handled speaking my mind with finesse, but I spoke up nonetheless. What have I learned? Daring to disagree is not conflict for conflict’s sake – it’s finding our own moral courage and speaking up and out for what we believe in. I am also learning that if we don’t make the effort to learn to have constructive conversations we may become part of or even cause an avoidable catastrophe.
“when we dare to break that silence, or when we dare to see, and we create conflict, we enable ourselves and the people around us to do our very best thinking.”
I encourage you to dare to disagree and see constructive conflict as an opportunity for collaboration.
