Will you have enough conflict – so your Big Idea becomes a commercial diamond?
If you trade in innovation, you know the odds. Fewer than 20% get adequate funding. Fewer than that get launched.
When you ask about the failures, you hear about product flaws and a lack of market traction. You have to probe deeper to see why really smart people overlooked key success factors or misread the market. Usually it comes down to conflict.
In the 20% that get funded – and the stars that generate real wealth for investors – the picture is different. Conflict, tension, debate, discord provide the pressure and heat that convert carbon into diamonds. Diverse perspectives are recruited and embraced, not rejected as “naysaying” or “not how we do things here.” The focus is on wealth-creation and on getting to the next milestone, not on power, privilege, hegemony or control.
In each success story, conflict PowersUP Brilliance™. The tough issues are raised. The flaws are identified and hammered out. Opportunities are vetted and optimized. There are few surprises and lots of solutions, before problems become derailers.
As business psychologists, we look for conflict that is generative rather than defensive – to PowerUP Brilliance™. We look for partners and executive teams with the diversity to see things differently and take different routes to a common cause. We look for robust debates that produce possibilities and work-arounds, upgrades and pivots, collaborative asset allocation. And we redirect debates that are so intent on winning that parties try to neutralize the opposition or compromise and avoid key issues.
Generative conflict has a different rhythm for diverse cultures, generations and personalities. Even in face-saving, respect-your-superiors cultures, there’s a way for differences to be explored rather than avoided. Even when relying on intuition, there’s a way to use logic and business cases and validate forward-looking assessments. And to lift dialogues above rivalries, personality clashes, fragile egos and the barriers of language, distance and time zones.
If it’s time to bring on conflict and use it to PowerUP Brilliance™ in your enterprise, let’s talk. Contact info@courageadvisors.com
