Conflict Can Be a Positive Force

“No organization can make good decisions without conflict.”

“If everyone is thinking alike, someone’s not thinking.”


We tend to veer away from conflict. It can make us feel uncomfortable, or even downright shaken. It can inspire anger, anxiety, hurt feelings, and a lot of other negative outcomes. So we avoid it. We try to play nice and hope everybody else does the same. If we can’t say something nice, our mothers taught us, don’t say anything at all.

If we could create such a place . . . a place free of conflict . . . would you want to work there? Probably not because it would also be a place free of passion, free of divergent points of view, and free of lively debate. It would be pretty boring. And it wouldn’t be an industry leader, it would be at the back of the pack.

The fact is, properly managed, conflict moves a business forward. New ideas are vetted in the heat of debate. Ideas that survive the heat give us confidence that we may actually be on to something here. Ideas that wilt under a robust discussion probably don’t deserve to see the light of day. It’s the rite of passage that separates the good ideas from the not-so-good.

So how do we manage conflict so that it’s a positive force and not a detrimental one?

It starts with the simple notion that we can disagree without being disagreeable, and we build that simple notion into our culture. Mostly that means we have to make it “safe” for people to disagree or to take opposite points of view. So we vigorously defend our own position, but we don’t assign unworthy motives to our opponent. We assume that everyone is well-intentioned and honestly motivated. When people know they can stand up and say what they believe without being castigated or impugned, guess what? They will!

As part of any good decision-making process, we need to hear a variety of opinions. We need healthy, robust debate that brings out divergent thoughts without getting personal. If we manage that well, we get everyone’s best thinking, and when the smoke clears, we’re still friends, colleagues, and members of the same team.

For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

“Permitting colleagues to participate in decision-making is not so much a favor to the participants as it is to the executive.”

The days of the boss hurling down lightning bolts while his employees scurry to do his bidding are long gone. Employees today are better educated, better trained, and have access to more information than ever before. They have insights as to what’s working well and what’s not. In short, they are smart people who expect a seat at the decision-making table. If they are denied that seat, a number of things are likely to happen, all of them bad.

First, the best employees will leave in favor of businesses that value their input. Then the remaining employees will not enthusiastically support decisions in which they had no part. Or worse, they may actively subvert such decisions. On the other hand, an inclusive decision-making process carries a number of positive outcomes.

The most important outcome is that the executive gets the brain power of some really smart people who will express views, opinions, and ideas that may s/he may not have considered. Job satisfaction goes up because people want to know that their views have been heard and valued. And implementation is more robust when employees are part of the process and take ownership of the decisions.

The one drawback is that decisions made with input from lots of people may not be as elegant and precise as a decision formulated by one person. Still, it’s far better to have an imperfect decision perfectly implemented than it is to have a perfect decision poorly implemented.

For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.

Don't Put Off Decisions

“A decision is an action an executive must take when he has information so incomplete that the answer does not suggest itself.”

The message here is clear. Don’t wait until you have all the information you need to make a perfect decision, because you’ll never have it. So leaders need to discipline themselves to recognize when they have assembled as much information and as many opinions as they reasonably can, and that further delay will not produce a better decision.

Decision-making is more art form than science. It mixes data with experience, good thinking with instinct. So don’t allow its imperfect nature cause a thoughtful and deliberate decision-making process slip into procrastination and unnecessary delay. As the folks at Nike would say, “Just do it!”

For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.