Trigger Question #35:
You are sitting at the boardroom table. (I know you’re not. Please, just imagine you are.) Seated at the table are your colleagues, the other senior executives of this huge, and hugely successful, firm. (I know it’s not. Please, just imagine it is.) At the head of the table, as always, is the widely respected CEO. (I know he’s… oh, forget it.)
“Gentlemen,” he says. “I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here.”
(In those days, you were all gentlemen. If you are not one today, please try to picture yourself as a gentleman. See, it’s not that hard.)
You all nod in agreement.
“Then I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until the next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement, and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.”
Say what?
Now imagine you are chairing your own meeting. All the gentle people (gentlemen and gentlewomen and gentle-others) around the table (or virtually around somewhere) nod in collective agreement. Makes you happy, doesn’t it?
If it makes you happy, you are clearly not Mr. Alfred Sloan, chairing a meeting of GM senior executives. Those were his words quoted above.
No, I wasn’t at that meeting, but I can imagine it. (I read about it in The Economist of January 30th, 2009.)
And because I can imagine being at that meeting, I try to “develop disagreement, and perhaps gain some understanding” in any meeting I happen to chair. (If you don’t understand why I do that, then read the quote again. Here’s a hint. It’s the depth of understanding, the awareness, that matters. Not the agreement.)
But don’t take the quest for disagreement too far. I once heard a joke about an Irishman who landed in England for the first time. If I remember it correctly, the first thing he asked was, “Which party is in power?” On being told, he said, “Well, I’m against them.”
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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Quote of the Moment:
“I know it feels nice to agree, but somehow I learn more from disagreements.” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
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