Productive Disagreement Depends on How People Feel About Each Other Ian Leslie

Productive disagreement depends on how people feel about each other.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how to argue, and not enough on how to shape the relationship that will define how the engagement goes.

It’s often said that in order to disagree well, people need to put emotions aside and think purely rationally, but this is a myth.

Disagreeing productively requires a bond of trust: a sense that we are ultimately working with, and not against, each other.

That’s an inherently emotional question as well as a cognitive one …

People are not purely rational, and acting as if they are leads to dysfunction.

We release the full potential of this disagreement when we incorporate our unreasonableness into the process.

Credit: Ian Leslie

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