I too agree that the willingness to be open to honest disagreement in any organization is critical to success. No organization can be effective if it is made up of "yes" men. people need to agree to disagree about things that are important. The two issues it seems to me are deciding what is important enough to disagree on and deciding where the disagreement needs to take place. If we simply generate disagreement or an attempt to call someone out on every issue, then we trivialize the strength that can be gained by honest disagreement and by holding everyone accountable for the things in their area. We need to be willing to look at the "big picture" and disagree on those things that are critical to the organization's function rather than on those things that are simply window dressing.
Also, we need to know as an administrative team that we need to present a united front to the larger world. It is preferable to disagree within staff meetings, but once the direction of the organization is decided, we should present a clear picture of mutually supportive behavior to the wider world.
I too agree that the willingness to be open to honest disagreement in any organization is critical to success. No organization can be effective if it is made up of "yes" men. people need to agree to disagree about things that are important. The two issues it seems to me are deciding what is important enough to disagree on and deciding where the disagreement needs to take place. If we simply generate disagreement or an attempt to call someone out on every issue, then we trivialize the strength that can be gained by honest disagreement and by holding everyone accountable for the things in their area. We need to be willing to look at the "big picture" and disagree on those things that are critical to the organization's function rather than on those things that are simply window dressing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we need to know as an administrative team that we need to present a united front to the larger world. It is preferable to disagree within staff meetings, but once the direction of the organization is decided, we should present a clear picture of mutually supportive behavior to the wider world.