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Welcome to the HBR idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard.
欢迎来到《哈佛商业评论》的思想播客,我是艾莉森·贝尔。
Are you a non-conformist? Someone happy to challenge the status quo, ruffle a few feathers, stir the pot? If so, this episode is for you. We're going to teach you how to keep doing all of that without annoying other people as much as you might do right now.
But this episode is also for everyone out there who's reluctant to stand apart from the crowd or cause trouble. Those of us who want to disagree with colleagues and bosses or family and friends sometimes but aren't exactly sure how to speak up and make our case, or even if we want to risk the consequences.
It's also for managers who need to do a better job of wrangling both types of people to get the best from the catflies and the go-alongs. Here to help us is Todd Cashton, a professor of psychology and director of the Wellbeing Lab at George Mason University. He's the author of the book, The Art of Ince of Ordination, How to Descent and Defy Effectively. Hi Todd.
We all live in these hierarchies. Some of them are power based, some of them are social status based. The idea of Ince of Ordination is that you are to some degree speaking outside of turn in terms of where you are in the hierarchy, what wrang you are, that you're willing to speak up against people that are potentially higher than yourself. There's a lot of research to show that just the presence of someone that descents from the majority or popular sentiments in a room increases the intelligence and decision making of that group.
And why does some people gravitate toward descent while others don't? I can assume it's both nature and nurture, but you definitely see the personalities who are always willing to do it and the personalities who really shy away from it.
Well, in terms of principled ince of ordination or principled rebels, one of the misnomer's that's really important to correct is we think it's the people that are disengaged from the group. So if you really don't like the people on your soccer team, if you don't get along with the people in your workplace, you assume that those are the people that are going to fold their arms and disagree with what the committee says or what the group decides is a direction to go. And there's great research by Dominic Packer at Lehigh University that shows that what often leads to principled descent is someone that strongly identifies with the group and they care so much about the health and longevity of the group that they're willing to risk social capital to say something. And the other element that really predicts whether something will actually express their view is that they believe that the benefits of speaking outweigh the costs of saying nothing and staying silent and sticking with the herd.
Okay, so let's take one step back. What do you define as principled ince of ordination versus unprincipled?
好的,那么让我们退一步。在您看来,规定的原则与不合规的原则有何区别?
So I have this equation where you get these multiple elements in there. So you're talking about deviance from popular sentiments or the orthodoxy of the group. And that could be in the workplace at a school in your neighborhood with your friends. Then there's an element of, are you contributing to the welfare of the group versus this is just self focused and self absorbed. And the other element that's there is that is this authentic? Are you doing this because this is core to your values and what do you tope in more ideal world you imagine being or you're doing this for likability and status points. And you put those elements together and you get someone that's willing to disagree and speak out against dysfunctional norms, beliefs or ideas.
You know, in my experience, particularly in the workplace, people who dissent or challenge or provoke, they are still punished for it in some way, even when it's coming from a principled position. How do you get around that? You know, not being seen as a team player, not being seen as promotable to management.
Right. So there's the notion that you're going to be rejected and socially persecuted is really highly probable. The real question to be asking yourself, if you're thinking about disagreeing with the direction or the idea is that a group is taking that you're a part of is, do I care about the contribution of what this group can accomplish more so than it care about my momentary psychological welfare?
Because what we tend to find is in the intermediate aftermath of saying something, people are reluctant to be around that person and there is some rejection and negative valuation. But in the longer term, you find people will thank you and appreciate of you said what have been wanting to say for years. And then slowly, I call it the sleeper effect is that you find that you have more allies than you think because most people's preferences are not publicly represented and they only express them in private to their close friends and family.
Is it important to know that people are on your side before you decide to dissent? Yeah, if you're thinking about what are the most effective strategies to dissent against a dysfunctional idea that's taking hold in a group. The best way to go is to collect allies beforehand. And even a better strategy is to talk to people privately one at one people who you think will be opponents to your perspective.
Now, there's even a way of doing this is that when you're talking to someone that you think will disagree with your perspective to ask them, what do you think is potentially a cost of the direction that we're going? Here's an idea that I have and I'm wondering how I can get your thoughts and criticisms ahead of time before I speak to the group so I can potentially have some traction.
And the beauty of this strategy is it's not public facing because they are criticizing you in private. They are essentially a co collaborator on whatever you bring up to the group. And there's a psychological tie to who you are and what you're going to say when you speak to that group and you're also showing a little bit of respect and dignity towards them that you would take into the side and spend your time that they are so valuable that you would acknowledge them before speaking to the group.
And this is the way that you could potentially bring your greatest adversaries onto your side, even if they don't vote for you, they might be willing to reduce the length of the runway for your idea to get a hearing so that people at least willing to consider what you have to say.
Are there other specific tactics that you recommend for people who want to dissent more? Oh, there's so many strategies.
您推荐给那些想要更多表达异议的人的其他具体策略吗?哦,有很多方法。
So one thing that's really important about an idea is if you're in the minority in terms of numbers or demographics are on a lot of people that look like you or think like you in a group. What you want to do is demonstrate that you have group loyalty before you reveal your counter idea to what the group is doing.
And so this is when you have to resist humility and say, you know, I've been part of this group for 17 years and you've seen me at functions, you've seen me at after hours working here, you've seen that my car is one of the first people that parks and gets the building in the office place. You've seen is that I have constantly volunteered for positions. So please know that I've been very serious before the idea of speaking out about the direction that the way the group is going. It's because I care.
So you don't just want to say you care. You really want to offer behavioral evidence that you are in group member or that you care about the group. And this is when all of those acts of services offer an opportunity to have currency to spend at this moment where you get to do something that is against the will of the group at this moment.
Yeah, so you're not just the person who's always grumbling in the corner. As you said initially, you need to be part of the group caring about the group and emphasizing that. Yeah, and even more important to that is you need the evidence to prove that to people you want to have before you speak people's defenses to drop.
You want the least threatening message possible. So the first one is to show I am a caring loyal member of this group. And the second part of that is you want to induce people's curiosity as opposed to a threat radar. And the way of doing this is to speak about what's possible, have a vision of an alternative way where the group can prosper and make a bigger difference even if there are short term painful cost to it.
So when you're talking about shutting down a particular product that people were excited about that's going to cause a lot of short term friction. And in order to gain less defensiveness from other people is to point out what your magic would happen with those resources being spent elsewhere.
I think in a lot of corporations though, just the idea of descent is that it's creating friction that creates inefficiency, which is anathema successful organizations.. So how do you address that? So what you want to do is really focus on exactly what obstacles inefficiencies and problems are going to happen with this idea of being raised.
You're basically doing an audit of all the negative things you're anticipating exactly what people are going to say. Yes, this is going to take more time. Yes, this will be costly in the short term. Yes, this conversation alone is making the speed for us to make decisions slower, but is it more important for us to make better decision and have more information so that we actually do better in the long run compared to the short level of excitement and cohesion around this idea right now.
So while inefficient, there's a stimulation of ideas that happens when we allow an embrace descent when it occurs.
因此,尽管效率低下,但当我们允许接受下降时,会激发思想的刺激。
Now, I've sort of jumped ahead and accepted your premise that we should all try to descent more. And you know, definitely we know that the bold innovators who really make a difference in the world are the ones who do that, you know, they drop out of school, they disagree with bosses, they fight the status quo. I'm thinking of tech CEOs, I'm also thinking of civil rights leaders like John Lewis, but you know, for those of us doing everyday jobs who don't naturally want to rebel, who might work in cultures where rebellion is discouraged.
Why should we try to start doing it more? Well, there's two reasons, one is the thing that is the architectural framework of a well-lived life is a sense of mission, a sense of purpose in life, a feeling that you contribute to something bigger than yourself.
This is exactly how you do it where you are a unique idiosyncratic element of a workplace or a group and that you are not an interchangeable part with everyone else. It is your unique perspective, nobody who has ever walked the earth has read the same books as you, conversed with the same people as you had the same negative and positive life events as you, the same childhood history as you of friendships, failures, errors and mistakes.
All of that brings a perspective that is unique and is that these moments that you get to share that uniqueness and it makes you more fulfilled as a person, even if it's stressful.
And it's what makes a group stronger even if you don't get credit for it. And I really want to emphasize is that if you do disagree, you might not get credit but there's a sense of empowerment, agency and meaning of realizing that you spent your finite amount of energy and time on this earth, in this workplace, offering something that is unique and valuable. And even if it's just recognizing is that the ideas that are being displayed and the ways that people are doing things is inefficient or it's not working and it's about time someone says something, it is the best way of being a good group member, even if it involves some pain.
So if you don't get credit, you might not be successful and you might be punished, you should still do it. And there's some boundary conditions, right? So if it ends up being, you're living paycheck to paycheck.
And if it ends up being that there's no plan B in terms of if there's no other job that you could have and that you're on the fringes, a marginalized member of society, you don't have the same opportunities. And that's the case, what I would argue is it's like the question you raised before about is it important to get allies? Try to find someone who has good social stature in the group who is willing to amplify your voice.
Because you know that if it comes from them, it's more likely to get a hearing. It's more likely to be considered. And they're more likely to really spend time working with the idea and make it clear that they are the co creator of whatever idea or contribution this is.
What's your advice for the people who are seen as potsters? You know, they're always provoking. They're always challenging. You know, is it that they need to better pick their battles? They need to use better tactics? Yeah.
So we have people that identify as being a nonconformist, a maverick, a rebel. And so one of the strategies is to really discern what is the subjective evidence to support my plan or idea and what is the objective evidence? Thinking in terms of evidence is a good way to get better at being a nonconformist.
And so if it's always your opinion and it's always your preference to offer an idea that is counter intuitive to what the group is saying, you're not going to be as persuasive as saying. If you look at the numbers, enrollment at this school has declined precipitously over the past five years.. Now we have tried x, y, and z strategies. What if we consider an experiment of another approach that myself and this other person has been thinking about.
In this case, you're offering an invitation, you're providing objective evidence of how there has been failing. So over the past few years, even if people haven't been acknowledging it sufficiently. And you're also acknowledging is that you're not the only person involved with this. So this can't be just an attack on you as the individual that you have a small or large coalition that's involved behind this cause and you just happen to be the representative person who's going to speak on their behalf.
Those are all strategies. So we've talked about the individual contributor who is either up for rebelling and needs to sort of rein themselves in and we've talked about the person who might be reluctant to and should have a little bit more courage. If I'm a manager or a team leader, what do I risk and what do I gain by trying to foster more dissent and even in subordination. So this is the mantra that I hold we unlock the benefits of diversity by allowing and permitting and embracing dissent.
So there's a lot of conversation about diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging. We are adequate at bringing diverse talent into the room. We are horrible at an organizational level across the board, not just the United States, but elsewhere in terms of ensuring that they get a voice and that they do speak that they are heard sufficiently compared to people who are part of the majority.
If you are looking for better decision making, if you are looking for creative ideas, we know that the greatest predictor of creative ideas is the number of ideas generated in the first place and the quickest way to get a larger pool of ideas is having a wider variety of voices and perspectives that happen. Even if they are wrong and one of the cool things as a leader to know is that even when those people are wrong, they open the portals to were allowed to ask questions were allowed to consider weird things and were allowed to acknowledge is that the approaches we've used in the past might have been sufficient or adequate, but let's go for more utopian ideals.
And so if you're looking for truly renovating and improving the nature of a group, it's worthwhile to explicitly say before we have this meeting, I want you to know that I appreciate and want to bring in voices that aren't heard often voices that are on the fringe. I want to allow them as opposed to the same people taking most of the air time and eating up most of the clock or having conversations, having that as the value system ahead of time that we're choosing critical thinking and autonomy is more important values and cohesion might not lead to a positive social encounter or a really enjoyable meeting but better ideas and better decisions.
But you're also as a boss saying I want you to challenge me, I want you to tell me I'm wrong. So if you encourage a lot of that and people do disagree and make different arguments and then you choose one direction over the other, how do you then almost quash the sense so that everyone's moving in the same direction.
So the key is to think of us in stages, so you want to have a generative phase where you're collecting more ideas from more people and getting more perspectives in the room. And then you have the selection stage where you're deciding which ideas we put more effort and energy behind to start testing and working with. And when the leader decides not to choose an idea, there's been so much conversation at this point that you were to provide a narrative of why one idea was chosen over another one.
So you're validating the development of ideas and you're validating the selection for ideas so that it's not just about what's going to be decided at this moment. This is a process that we're going to continue further. I want you to do the same thing again and bring those ideas into the pool for the second, third, fourth and for the remainder of our lives as a group.
I think the important part is to clarify what are the core values of the organization and what are going to be the rules of engagement of having discourse and productive disagreements in a group. Have you seen people and teams learn to do this even in corporate cultures that really emphasize consensus and even kindness as so many of them now do HBR included.
Yeah, I mean, if you want, I'll give you a very provocative example of something I was a part of. So for anyone that's not a football fan, which you don't need to be American football, the Green Bay Packers local citizens are allowed to be shareholders in the organization. And so they had a shareholder meeting and during this meeting, there was a guy who stood up and said they were against the idea of the Green Bay Packers supporting LGBTQ communities.. They didn't like the gay pride flag being anywhere near any apparel or any setting that involved the Green Bay Packers and said this is against my value system.
Now here's the thing. This comment, of course, weeks of homophobia. It's sort of not the thing you typically hear in 2023 in a conversation. And what I would argue is this kind of dissent while very uncomfortable to hear, would you prefer biases and prejudices to be revealed publicly or would you want those votes that those people have as stakeholders and shareholders to be done without any part of the discussion. Because while you might disagree with everything this person says, which idea it does introduce and liberate people to have a different related conversation, which is what things outside of football should this team and organization be focusing on because there are so many issues that are problematic in society. And the question is, what is going to be our decision making process for which causes we're going to focus on and which ones we're not going to focus on.
And in this way, you can have a much richer, more important conversation of what should a football team be focusing on and how do we make those decisions. And they ended up having a pretty big argument about gay rights, homophobia, marginalized communities, and it ended up leading to a really nice discussion of here is going to be a decision making set of guidelines and it developed a systematic approach. And before that, it was whoever had allowed his voice one.
Are there generational differences in either a willingness to be insubordinate or to tolerate insubordination. I think if you look at the value priorities and the preferences in the workplace, you see different problem areas in different generations. So for the younger generation, you see a greater preference for work family integration, a greater emphasis on I want my work to be meaningful as opposed to being recognized and opposed to just acquiring achievements and accomplishments compared to older generations. And for these individuals, they're not using a lot of these strategies that I've been talking about.
The way that you convey a message can push people to being interested, curious, and open up an opportunity for those ideas to be considered or those defenses go up. And I think the younger generation has not spent enough time on what is the best way to communicate ideas effectively. They're going straight for the jugular of your wrong, I have a better way. And while that might be true, the goal is not to be right. The goal is to improve the intelligence and the wisdom of the group and the older generations in the workplace, they've made their careers focusing on status and power.
And in some ways, the way you consolidate status and power is keep the status quo going. And so there's really a denigration of the values of younger generations. The problem is that you have not allowed a sufficient opening for someone who lacks official power and status to be given a forum. So final question, can people be successful if they don't want to push the envelope in this way? Or do you think that everyone needs to start figuring out areas where dissent is necessary?
Yeah, I'm glad you said this because if in a world where everyone is dissenting, nothing actually gets accomplished, it's really important to think of yourself as in two roles. One is, are you going to be a receptive, open-minded audience member when people share ideas? And that doesn't mean agreeing with someone or going along with them. It means that you're willing to give a reception to an idea. And there's the idea generator where thinking about new ways of doing things, thinking of better ways of doing things, even if it's just removing inefficiencies or removing unnecessary barriers.
It's the combination of what works well, what doesn't work well, and what structures can we build into our mood of thinking such that the ideas that work well can develop, be experimented on, and be tweaked as society changes, as culture changes, and as the organization changes. Terrific. Well, I will say that I am not one who really shies away from dissent, but I do think I could probably do it more effectively, so I personally will take your advice to heart, and I hope that others do too. Todd, thanks so much for being on the show.
Yes, so fun to be here. That's Todd Cajdan. He's a psychology professor and director of the Wellbeing Lab at George Mason University. He's the author of the book, The Art of Ince of Ordination, How to Descent and Defy Effectively.
And we have more episodes and more podcasts to help you manage your team, your organization, and your career. Find them at hbr.org slash podcasts or search hbr in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
This episode was produced by Mary Doo. We get technical help from Rob Eckhart, our audio product manager is Ian Fox, and Hannah Bates is our audio production assistant.
Thanks for listening to the HBO Idea Cast. We'll be back with a new episode on Tuesday. I'm Allison Beard.
感谢您收听HBOIdeaCast。我们下周二将回归新一期的节目。我是艾莉森·贝尔。
Hi, it's Allison. Before you go, I have a question. What do you love about hbr?
嗨,我是艾莉森。在你走之前,我有一个问题。您喜欢HBR的哪些方面呢?
I worked at newspapers before I came to HBR, and the thing that is impressed me most is the amount of attention and care that goes into the world. And the thing that goes into the world is that we have multiple editors working on each piece. They put their all into translating these ideas from academia or companies in practice into advice that will really change people's lives in the workplace.
If you love HBR's work, the best thing you can do to support us is to become a subscriber. You can do that at hbr.org slash subscribe Idea Cast, all one word no spaces. That's hbr.org slash subscribe Idea Cast. Thanks.