Embrace the tension - don't be a dead fish

Building a healthy organization looks different than I thought.  

The moments of conflict are actually the moments that define teams. 

“If you want love without conflict, get a dog.” - Patrick Bet-David 

Put another way:  

If you want a great team without conflict, work alone. 

David Ogilvy, British advertising tycoon, calls the dilemma of avoiding tension as the “tyranny of politeness.”  Ogilvy continues, “If we avoid candor we destroy trust.”  

Ogilvy has some “street cred.” Warren Buffets considered Ogilvy a genius and one of his favorite business leaders. 

By trying to keep the peace or avoid conflict on a team it actually destroys trust! 

I’m proud to share that at Century in the past couple weeks I think we’ve had some tough conversations. I think it’s built more trust. I think the tension and getting on the other side of the disagreements showed an opportunity to move forward together without faking it.  

Ogilvy would have been proud of the difficult meetings we had pushing back on opinions and disagreeing. Ogilvy went as far as to say: “Only dead fish go with the flow.” 

Embracing tension is a trait of truly great organizations. 

Ogilvy institutionalized in his advertising business to have the courage to stand up for your opinions. Ogilvy believed: “We only get a spark when the stone & flint move in opposite directions.” 

Bezos also shares an affinity for healthy conflict on teams: “If I have to pick between conflict & agreement. I will take conflict every time it always yields a better result.”  

Let’s keep swimming upstream and creating sparks! No dead fish allowed. 

Onward, 

Matt