How to Create Productive Disagreement

Disagreements don’t have to be destructive. In fact, they often present hidden gems for you to innovate and grow. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Francesca Gino and Hanne K Collins of the Harvard School of Business, and Charles Dorison of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, offer several evidence-based strategies to make disagreements productive:

• Focus on what you can learn:  We tend to approach disagreements as a chance to score points and prove we are right. But research shows that people fare better if they approach conflict with a willingness to learn.
• Don't underestimate others’ willingness to learn from you: How you experience conflict — and how it eventually unfolds — is heavily affected by your perceptions of the other person’s thoughts and feelings. The problem is that people tend to misinterpret the intentions of those they disagree with. In studies, people who did believe that their counterpart intended to learn about their point of view during the conversation, enjoyed the interaction more and evaluated their partner more positively.
• Be explicit about your intentions: Given that the person you are in conflict with is likely to underestimate your willingness to learn about them, you should be very direct and explicit about your intention to do so. In the authors’ research, they discovered it only takes a couple of sentences to clearly and effectively convey your intention to learn about your counterpart’s point of view. You might say something like, “This is an important issue. I’m curious to hear what people who disagree with me have to say about this topic.”

When was the last time you learned something new as a result of a disagreement? Did you put your new knowledge to use? To join the conversation, click on "comments" above.
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