{"id":2200,"date":"2015-11-12T17:44:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T00:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/?p=2200"},"modified":"2018-04-07T10:58:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T17:58:17","slug":"disagreement-yes-disrespect-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2015\/11\/12\/disagreement-yes-disrespect-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Disagreement, Yes. Disrespect, No."},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon Is Right That Disagreement Results in Better Decisions<\/a>
\n[Via Harvard Business Review<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\n

When I worked in the federal government, I was amazed at the large numbers of factual errors in widely-read stories, even in the best newspapers. As a colleague of mine, a staunch Democrat, observed in 2009, \u201cI now think that at least half of the things I most disliked about the Bush Administration . . . never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tell this little tale because the lengthy New York Times story, detailing some apparently brutal features of the culture at Amazon, should be taken with many grains of salt. But even if the story is full of inaccuracies, and if we put\u00a0the company\u2019s alleged harshness to one side,\u00a0Amazon\u2019s approach offers indispensable guidance for companies both large and small when they are deciding how to make group decisions.<\/p>\n

[More<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Disagreement does not mean disrespect. Finding the right balance will help companies become successful and wise.<\/em><\/p>\n

The disagreement must be based on and argued using logical rhetoric. Allowing logucal fallacies<\/a> to be raised in a disagreement will result in a failed process and little wisdom.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Brook\u2019s law<\/a> suggests, projects cannot be made successful by spending more time or throwing more people at them. What can make the projects\u00a0successful is effective information flow, lowering the friction for important information to traverse the group.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

One way that works to do this is to have open\u00a0discussions, including open\u00a0disagreement. These prevents groupthink will enhancng the inflow of novel information.<\/em><\/p>\n

But, logical fallacies or lawyerly tactics (ie belittling, bullying, anger, intimidation) will destroy the benefits of this process and eventually cause the company to fail.<\/em><\/p>\n

Because the\u00a0dissenters, the disruptors who disagree, will either leave for better pastures or be forced out. Leaving the company full of easy going, hard working drones who simply follow the easiest path rather than the wise one.<\/em><\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0Carsten Tolkmit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazon Is Right That Disagreement Results in Better Decisions [Via Harvard Business Review] When I worked in the federal government, I was amazed at the large numbers of factual errors in widely-read stories, even in the best newspapers. As a colleague of mine, a staunch Democrat, observed in 2009, \u201cI now think that at least … Continue reading Disagreement, Yes. Disrespect, No.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[22,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-21st-century-company","category-distributed-democracy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.spreadingscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/wolves.0011.jpeg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe2yp-zu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1122,"url":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2015\/05\/14\/whole-foods-does-not-realize-the-supermarket-is-dying\/","url_meta":{"origin":2200,"position":0},"title":"Whole Foods does not realize the supermarket is dying","date":"May 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Whole Foods\u2019 Misguided Play for Millennials [Via HarvardBusiness.org] The news that Whole Foods will open a separate chain of stores designed to appeal to millennials stopped me mid-aisle. 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