The 10th Man

Iconoclastic Are they independent thinkers? Look for people who are comfortable challenging the status quo. Find mavericks who know how to tell others what they may not necessarily want to hear. Look for team members who can ask a series of difficult questions and challenge assumptions.

Surowiecki’s argument is that we need dissenting voices, people who challenge the conventional wisdom, resist the fashionable consensus, and disturb the intellectual peace. “Follow the person in front of you” is as dangerous to humans as it is to army ants.

CHAPTER 5 Dissent to Win

“Minority viewpoints are important, not because they tend to prevail but because they stimulate divergent attention and thought,” finds Berkeley psychologist Charlan Nemeth, one of the world’s leading experts on group decisions. “As a result, even when they are wrong they contribute to the detection of novel solutions and decisions that, on balance

The voices of dissent are naysayers, the skeptics, who not only question this initiative but question whatever is on the agenda for today. They are princes of darkness, often resting on the negative. But they are valuable for implementing adaptive change because they are canaries in the coal mine, early-warning systems, and because in addition to b