Why doesn’t thoughtful disagreement like this typically occur? Because most people are instinctively reluctant to disagree. For example, if two people go to a restaurant and one says he likes the food, the other is more likely to say “I like it too” or not say anything at all, even if that’s not true. The reluctance to disagree is the “lower-level ... See more

Teams should not strive for complete consensus at the outset of a project. After all, consensus-driven teams run the risk of settling on what offends no one and satisfies no one. Early and complete consensus is comfortable but almost always unremarkable. Leaders of creative teams should identify and highlight the noteworthy, memorable solutions at

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Peter Drucker offered a first rule of decision making: do not make a decision unless you have disagreement. In The Effective Executive, Drucker wrote the story of General Motors chief executive Alfred P. Sloan in the midst of an important decision. “I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here,” Sloan reportedly said to his team.

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