The keynote address from this year’s MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was moderated by Michael Lewis and featured an interesting panel, including Bill Simmons and Mark Cuban. You can watch it online.
Around 20 minutes in, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey talks about how he hates working with people who aren’t willing to stand up for their views.
You have to have a culture where there’s no bad idea and people aren’t afraid to bring them up. I want the people who work with me to have very, very strong opinions. And I get really mad if I make the first argument against and they’re immediately like, “Oh yeah, maybe you’re right.” That drives me nuts.
Neat to see a leader who wants his team members to disagree with him and push back. Loyalty and mindlessly saying yes aren’t the same things. Smart people want to hear pushback. Not drama and emotional conflict, just healthy disagreement.
Reminds me of the “strangers at a cocktail party” problem. When an HR department hires a ton of people rapidly, you wind up with polite agreement.
But when one — or a few people — hire and take special care to choose personalities who are a good fit (and then bring those people into the fold slowly), you get a culture where people feel ok speaking their minds.
Philippe Dionne
on 22 Mar 10Pretty true, but most leaders I don’t like to be challenged in their decisions, from my experience though.
Yep
on 22 Mar 10I agree
Nwokedi
on 22 Mar 10I think there’s a certain tone/civility that has to come across in order to disagree effectively.
Matt Henderson
on 22 Mar 10I think that many times people agree, not because they are afraid to disagree, but simply out of laziness.
A effortless reaction like, “that’s stupid”, even if you’re right, will most likely lead to the emotional conflict you mentioned. But the alternative — formulating and articulating an opposing argument based on objectivity — can require quite some effort. I think the combination of wanting to avoid conflict, and a disinterest in making that effort, is what often leads people to just agree.
But it’s precisely that effort that usually leads to better understanding, and is probably another reason why encouraging push-back is a good thing.
Rick Burnes
on 22 Mar 10Yes, but there’s a balance. Got to pick your battles.
All push back and no get shit done is a graduate seminar, not a successful business.
Jeffrey Tang
on 22 Mar 10So true. If you’re just going to roll over every time someone else gives a contrary opinion, then what are you contributing to the team?
I’d much rather work with people who have strong viewpoints and aren’t afraid to defend them than with people who just say what they think I want to hear.
Ben V
on 22 Mar 10@37signals
Hasn’t 37signals hired crazy fast in the past year. Something like near 2x increase in employees in the past 12 months
Ryan Stephens
on 22 Mar 10I think everyone here has made good points. I’ve had a similar experience to Philippe however in that even if the leaders say they want polite discord what they really want is for you to nod in agreement and lament about just how right they really are. It’s unfortunate, but true of many organizations.
Matt brings up a great point re: formulating and articulating an argument, but often times that’s hard to do on the spot before you’ve had adequate time to diagnose what’s really at work. In this situation what’s the best approach for delaying a decision to give yourself time to work up an argument for something that doesn’t feel right?
ML
on 22 Mar 10Hasn’t 37signals hired crazy fast in the past year.
Def more than in the past. But not “crazy” fast. One new person every few months won’t kill culture. Staffing up by hundreds per year prob will.
What’s the best approach for delaying a decision to give yourself time to work up an argument for something that doesn’t feel right?
I’m a huge fan of the phrase “Let me think about it and get back to you.” Like really. It’s a great way to avoid the need to answer yes/no immediately.
Peregrine Solus
on 22 Mar 10If this were true, all of you would have committed yourself after reading the first batch of comments you received.
Derrick
on 22 Mar 10Actually, that quote was from Daryl Morey, not Bill Polian.
Chris (from L.C.)
on 22 Mar 10Sometimes, good leaders make solid and sound decisions or come up with great ideas that really don’t require discussion.
Just another aspect to consider. Not everything needs to be a discussion, but be ready to accept and participate in it for the ones that do.
Michael
on 22 Mar 10I don’t believe anyone who says they want pushback until I see them actually get it in person. Most people don’t know how they really react.
Chris (from L.C.)
on 22 Mar 10@Michael, I agree with you on that.
I know someone who will ignore all (solicited) experienced advice/thorough research/etc., but will quickly shift blame to those who “let him do the wrong thing”.
That being said, it would make it easy to be a yes-man in this scenario. The leader, if he’s going to “want pushback”, needs to own his mistakes when he ignores the outcome of the discussion. Otherwise, no one’s going to want to offer any help, and, why would they?
Safehaven
on 22 Mar 10It’s more about working together than challenging anyone. The really good innovative ideas could only come from true originality. And, that means not being afraid to speak up. Hence, the importance of brain storm sessions. If we want to see a new world unfold, we all need to give this a shot, whether we are the listeners or the ones offering input. How else would change happen? It has to start somewhere. Seeing things in this perspective levels the playing field and opens opportunities that would no doubt help all. The ones that have a issue with this are not the real leaders. As the meaning of “lead” is to “serve”.
Michael
on 23 Mar 10@Chris, exactly so. I do like to give pushback before I believe the person asking for it. :) It’s worked every time except for one catastrophe. (I was totally wrong and paid for it with my job.)
Marty Rogers
on 23 Mar 10Hi Michael, I have a small team stretched across the US (15) and we have gone to monthly conference calls and of course we use Highrise to keep up with each others sales activities. Everyone wears a number of hates but primary focus is sales. The problem is a pretty big percentage of the team are simply not making calls or doing simple network activities. You need a chapt. in your book on firing as well as hiring. I’m not good at firing, I hate it. I’ve tried a number of things to motivate and train the team but they don’t seem motivated to even so much as view a Youtube training video. I know what we do is not for everyone, it is difficult but it can be done. I know you’re not in the advise giving business or maybe so, but I’d love to here what you have to say about letting go of the wrong team members.
This discussion is closed.