Dealing with dissent

Dissent is a valuable part of the leadership process. When dissent is managed well, it permits different voices to be heard and evaluated in the interest of doing what is right for the organization. When dissent is mismanaged, it becomes a lever for enemies to destroy each other and in the process do harm to their team and their organization. Managers can learn to manage dissent in ways that are good for individuals and teams.

Strong and open two-way communication can facilitate dissent and channel it in healthy directions. Here are some suggestions.

Dialogue. Borrowed from organizational learning, dialogue is an airing of ideas that are additive. The facilitator makes a statement or states a question. People in the group respond to it by adding thoughts. Focus is kept on what is said, not on who says it. Other people add their ideas. When it comes to dissent, dialogue can be a powerful tool for airing ideas without attributing them to people. What is important is the personal expression, not the person expressing it.

Discuss. A discussion is a form of conversation where people express ideas and opinions and add or subtract to them. When it comes to dissent, people raise ideas and objectives and go back and forth. For example, if the discussion is about the merits of a new system, people will feel free to discuss its benefits as well as its drawbacks. In good discussions, you want opinions backed by facts or experience. Don’t say you don’t like something. Give your reasons why (the design is defective, the engineering is not robust, the interface is clunky). The point of a discussion is not to argue; it is to air all sides of the issue.

Debate. A debate is a point-for-point argument where the purpose is to win or lose. Think Court TV — lawyers for the defense and the prosecution present their cases in ways that make their respective arguments look better than the others side’s. There is full-blown dissent as both sides seek to dismiss the strong points of the other’s arguments. In the meeting room, not the courtroom, you can debate ideas but minimize the acrimony. You want to win on merit, not by taking other people down. Keep in mind that the winning and losing is focused on the merits of the idea — not the people presenting it.

The other side
Dissent is good, but it can be debilitating. Even when kept on the level of ideas and not people, dissent can divide organizations. To prevent that from happening, leaders need to intervene. As our kindergarten teachers taught us, not all of us have what we want all of the time. So some dissenters will have to wait their turns by putting aside their ideas so the team can go forward.

Dissent is often focused on people, of course. For example, if someone presents a good idea but you doubt whether this individual has the capacity to pull it off, it is acceptable to raise questions. However, focus on the concept of execution rather than personality. Get the person to describe his experience on past jobs and why he feels he has the experience to pull off this new project. If you know the results of previous projects have been less than ideal, you can ask questions about why the project did not succeed. It is entirely possible that you do not know the entire story and that reasons for failure were beyond the individual’s scope.

Dissent over people is dicey. It is often better to handle the topic “off line” — that is, manager to employee, rather than in a group.

John Baldoni is president of Baldoni Consulting, a full-service coaching and leadership development firm, and speaks globally about leadership in all its applications. A bestselling business author of titles such as Leader with Purpose and The Leader’s Pocket Guide, Baldoni has written columns for CBS MoneyWatch, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Forbes. Have a question? Visit John Baldoni’s website at www.JohnBaldoni.com.