Healthy Team Disagreements

So you have a team that gets along great. Congratulations! Also, uh oh.

Turns out that a bit of healthy disagreement is actually really important in a business. After all, business breakthroughs and innovative ideas often come from friction-laden moments.

Since my role as a recruiter revolves around aligning candidates with the right companies, cultures, and roles, I often find myself discussing the “harmonious workplace” and “professional camaraderie.” But the truth is that some degree of disagreement is an essential ingredient in success.

If you’re leading or participating in a team that has an overly harmonious dynamic, how to spice things up?

Two time world debate champion Bo Seo suggests that it’s not necessary to bring debate & disagreement into the workplace. It’s already there. He goes on to say the nature of white collar work is being in meetings and disagreeing about things all day. Whether people feel in that process their ideas have been heard, whether you (as a manager or leader) are able to ensure that it’s not damaging to the relationship between colleagues, and whether you are able to have situations where ideas are tested in full and the best ones rise to the top – whether we can make those disagreements productive or not is, he thinks, the choice in front of us.

One key way to facilitate this is to notice who is sharing and participating the most, and intentionally call out the quieter team members, asking them for their opinions specifically. Often, the people who aren’t speaking up have opinions, insights, or points of view they’re nervous to share because they stand in contrast to the majority opinion.

Key takeaway – don’t be afraid of healthy workplace debate & discussion!

#workplace #teamwork #workplaceculturematters