I recently read an article in the April 2017 “Recreation Management” magazine, titled “The Power of Dissent,” written by Emily Tipping, the magazine’s editorial director.
I really enjoyed this article for several reasons. Tipping spoke of having Monday morning meetings at work to brainstorm new ideas for the week, to get plans rolling and to conduct follow-up sessions for projects that had been completed the following week. This all sounds typical to processes here at my workplace as well, so I was anxious to figure out what she meant by the “power of dissent’” as was the title of the article. When I hear the word dissent, I automatically think of the word disagreement.
Tipping explained that at every one of their meetings, no matter what, there was always one gentleman, one of her supervisors, who would in fact disagree with everything that was said. At first she found herself annoyed with his comments until she realized he was playing the devil’s advocate. He was purposely forcing this management team to consider different approaches, angles, solutions, obstacles, and potential problems to whatever it was they were talking about.
Tipping pointed out that people who disagree aren’t always disagreeable. She also said that you don’t just want a team completely made up of yes-men and yes-women. You want people who have different personalities, different strengths, different backgrounds and different ideas. I know when I am working on a project, with a group, I may have an idea of what I want the final project or outcome to look like, but it rarely turns out exactly that way. Most times it turns out better.
It doesn’t matter if I am the leader of the group or the one assembling them, or if I have been asked to help out with a certain task. I am trying to be more aware of the strengths that each member of teams and groups that I am on or working with bring to the table. I am trying to remember that dissent can be a good thing. I need to be willing to challenge my own beliefs in order to grow. I need to examine things from every angle possible and consider options I may have dismissed due to ease, comfort, perceived time constraints, or other factors/excuses. As Tipping points out, we all must be willing to recognize ideas and challenges that might help the end result of whatever we are working on.
I enjoyed this article, and I am trying to figure out how to implement this idea in my personal life as well. However, in our personal lives, people don’t usually enjoy being around a devil’s advocate or a “negative Nellie” all of the time. Perhaps, instead of trying my devil’s advocate approach with my people in my personal life, I think it might work better if I simply take a hard look at situations, in my own mind, and try to anticipate problems that may arise.
I already try to make sure lunches are packed the night before, all backpacks have been gone through and reorganized the night before, clothes are also laid out the night before and so on. However, as I am sure you have experienced yourself, getting everyone off to school and work in the mornings can be hectic at times, especially when you suddenly get the ‘Mom, I can’t find my…’ , or ‘Mom, have you seen my…’, or ‘Mom, I need to pay for…’, or (my favorite), ‘Mom, it’s my turn to bring snacks today.’
I am going to try Tipping’s approach, maybe out loud, but for sure, in my head: in my review or planning and anticipating of how things might or should go in my professional and personal life.
Hopefully, it will help me be a bit more on top of things at times.
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