Agreement - a sure sign of a problem

Having participated in countless board, executive, and strategy meetings, I've often observed how poorly disagreements are handled.  How quickly they can derail even the most seasoned leaders. It's astonishing how quickly mature professionals can shift from being composed to defensive, stubborn, and even impatient, especially when tensions rise over seemingly small points.  

We know people don’t like being wrong, I don’t like to be wrong.  Smart people with strong personalities, knowledge, and experience are going to argue their corner strongly.  Done poorly you end up with silos, and personal animosity, or disengagement.   

Too much disagreement handled poorly can derail leadership teams, culture, and generate some very poor decisions.  We’ve seen this and know this. 

Too much agreement, however, is a BUG disguised as a FEATURE. 

I've sat in meetings where the goal seems to be getting through the agenda in record time. The Chair patting themselves and the attendees on the back, “hey, meeting closed at 5:25pm, that’s a new record!”  

While efficiency has its place, if your leadership group too quickly seeks agreement or treats dissent with impatience, you're likely missing out on the opportunity to make the best decisions and foster growth and innovation. 

To be clear, I like it when we agree.  However, if I do happen to hold a mistaken belief or understanding, I don’t want to hold that one moment longer than I need to.  We need our ideas tested and our strategies sharpened. 

High performing leadership teams need to solve problems and make high quality decisions.  That requires high quality discussion from diverse minds. We need our perspectives to be challenged and tested to get closer to whatever is true.  We need each other to help course-correct before our strategy drifts too far. 

This is WHY we have boards and exec teams.   

High quality disagreement is the goal we should strive for 

Disagreement—when done well—is a critical feature of strong leadership. It ensures we are continually refining our thinking and making better, more informed decisions.  
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Remember: High-quality disagreement is not only necessary, it is vital. It’s through respectful debate and open exchange of ideas that we sharpen our strategies, refine our actions, and ultimately make better decisions.