Ep. 93: Why Healthy Disagreement Builds Stronger Teams

So I've heard you say before, and I've seen you post on LinkedIn, something to the effect of that in higher ed, Kevin, we have way too much, I'll call it polite silence just to keep the peace.

And then I think a lot of leaders potentially mistake that silence for agreement and alignment with the people that might be in the room or with their team.

So break that down and help us understand what you mean by that.

Yeah, it really comes down to the statement, and I think it caught some people's attention, polite silence is an organizational debt.

And a lot of my world at this moment is working with people and teams that are exhausted.

They're tired.

And it's that time of the year, right? And I would like to say we could say when we're recording this, but truthfully, it feels like it's that time of the year no matter when we're recording this.

And so I think leaders, and I'm probably guilty of this too, interpret head nodding and just passive quietness in a meeting as agreement.

And chances are that's not what's happening.

Chances are that is exhaustion, resignation, desire to avoid conflict so they can get back to the mountain of work that they have in their office.

And so what ends up happening is meetings are lip service or reporting out.

And it is not necessarily where the real opinions are shared.

And you'll hear this when you work with leaders on campus.

And I hear this working with leaders online and on any campus I've been to where they say the meeting after the meeting is really where we figured out some things.

And that's because in the meeting, head nodding is what's acceptance.

And so you never really bounce ideas.

You really never have conversations.

You're too worried about hurting the feeling of silo A, silo B, silo C to actually tear down that wall.

And so there's this prioritization of politeness over actual collaboration.

And I think it comes down to some simple things.

But I think back to working for Dr. Ellen Bonagura when I was at Western Kentucky University.

And I would do anything at all as far as a task or a program or an effort.

And she would say, how many eyes have you had on this? Just mine.

And now I'm bringing yours.

Let's do this.