FOR ORGANISATIONS


Role model directness. Both at a psychological and at a historical level, we have backgrounds that have empha- sised the art of indirectness and of bottling things up. The twentieth century saw the rise of deeply author- itarian regimes where the priority was keeping quiet. In Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia or Maoist China, not speaking directly was a successful survival mechanism. In earlier times we learned to keep very quiet around our tyrannical king, feudal lord, or boss. Deep inside, many of us still feel like serfs at work, carrying with us a deeply ingrained low self-esteem while stalking the corridors with shoulders hunched and eyes wary. This runs counter to any hopes of good collaboration. Leaders must celebrate and encourage conflict, opposition and disagreement—but practise being able to give and receive it good-naturedly and with as little defensiveness as they can muster.


Learn from the airlines. The key, however, is to imple- ment this kind of behaviour in a way where contention is depersonalised and done in a constructive and psychologically safe way. Some organisations, includ- ing some of the world’s most successful technology companies, have arguably gone too far and instituted cultures of direct and vicious contention where employees are encouraged to tear into each other’s ideas


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