Are Team Meetings Turning Into Echo Chambers? Dare to Disagree

Are your team meetings turning into echo chambers, rather than forums for productive debate and disagreement? The natural tendency to avoid conflict, particularly within close teams or partnerships, may seem harmless, but it could be leading your business in the wrong direction or hinder the progress of major change initiatives.

Margaret Heffernan, an author and former CEO of five businesses, explores this theory in a recent Ted Talk titled Dare to Disagree. Heffernan argues the best partners, teams and businesses are those that encourage disagreement and use it to empower collaboration and decision making. The presentation begins with an example of this theory in practice from the 1950’s between the doctor Alice Stewart and a statistician, but if you are pressed for time you can fast forward to the five-minute mark for Heffernan’s overview of her collaboration model.

For a more in depth analysis on organizational thought patterns and conflict avoidance, you can read Heffernan’s book, Willful Blindness.

written by Amir Modirzadeh