This recent post by Eric McNulty at strategy+business discusses the importance of constructive argument for innovation and organizational agility:

Becoming too entrenched in your own position can lead to blind spots resulting from cognitive biases and positional prejudice — the same situation can look quite different when viewed through the lens of finance versus that of legal or marketing. The actual conditions are likely more nuanced and complex than can be seen from any one position alone. If your goal truly is the best outcome for your organization, your associates, your customers, and your investors, it pays to learn how to argue and critique properly and productively.

The Walk in the Woods, a methodology originally developed by Cambridge Meta-Leadership principals for conflict resolution, is equally useful for encouraging healthy debate and productive collaboration. Discipline around the process helps teams elicit numerous ideas, critique them constructively, and find common ground around the most promising. The process helps focus on which is the best idea rather than whose idea is best — the first step to a better outcome.

Read the full post.