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Encourage the dissenters

“The pro-change constituency must always be more powerful than the no-change constituency.”

There is a tendency in every organization to discount disputatious or divergent points of view. Those with an interest in defening the status quo often regard dissent as subverssive. Yet history shows it was often the malcontents and the contrarians who had the most prescient view of tomorrow’s threats and opportunities. So rather than marginalize the outliers, organizations must ensure that their voices are heard. Internal debates about strategy and policy must be vigorous, open and uncensored, and every management processes must encourage those with discomforting views to speak up.

18 Stories
36 Hacks
5 Barriers

Encourage the dissenters

“The pro-change constituency must always be more powerful than the no-change constituency.”

There is a tendency in every organization to discount disputatious or divergent points of view. Those with an interest in defening the status quo often regard dissent as subverssive. Yet history shows it was often the malcontents and the contrarians who had the most prescient view of tomorrow’s threats and opportunities. So rather than marginalize the outliers, organizations must ensure that their voices are heard. Internal debates about strategy and policy must be vigorous, open and uncensored, and every management processes must encourage those with discomforting views to speak up.

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This entry tells the extraordinary story of how a small group of trainee clinicians, young leaders and improvement facilitators from within the National Health Service (NHS) of England created a call
Story by Helen Bevan on June 14, 2013
Many great ideas for what needs to be done or fixed at an organization get suggested.But never in any formal forum - the best ideas often come up when out for drinks, or in furtive cubicle conversatio
Barrier by Eric Nehrlich on April 16, 2010
Bring the ideas of integrative (not competitive) negotiation to bear as you lead daily and large-scale organizational activities.
Hack by Terri Griffith on June 29, 2011
Power distribution is a leadership paradigm that unlocks the often hidden power of a company’s greatest asset – its employees.  It facilitates collective design of company strategy, assi
Hack by Zaneta Schumann on February 1, 2011
I propose that the transformation of the 20th century into the 21st be the Age of Answers to the Age of Questions.  While answers are important, it’s more important to know what qu
Create a crack team of change agents available to parachute into businesses and support the empowerment of it's intrapreneurs to affect the culture of the company and establish an openness to innovati
Hack by Mike Orchard on June 29, 2013
Expecting a group of highly educated, culturally fixed Ph.Ds who are excellent researchers to run their own operation may have been fine 80 years ago when educational operations were run, staffed, and
Barrier by Aaron Anderson on September 3, 2010
A shared space to which colleagues are encouraged to post divergent ideas and innovative solutions.
Hack by Silvia Colombo on June 28, 2011

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