Disagreement and Dissent

In his play, Two Thousand Years, author Mark Leigh has the following lines:

Four guys are standing on a street corner . . .
An American, a Russian, a Chinese man, and an Israeli . . .
A reporter comes up to the group and says to them:
“Excuse me . . . What’s your opinion on the meat shortage?”
The American says: What’s a shortage?
The Russian says: What’s meat?
The Chinese man says: What’s an opinion?
The Israeli says: What’s “Excuse me?”

Dov Frohman, the founder of Intel Israel made the following observations about leaders – “The goal of a leader should be to maximize resistance – in the sense of encouraging disagreement and dissent. When an organization is in crisis, lack of resistance can itself be a big problem. It can mean that the change you are trying to create isn’t radical enough - or that the opposition has gone underground. If you aren’t aware that the people in the organization disagree with you, then you are in trouble.”

Culture can play a significant role in management activities and leadership styles. A typical meeting in an Israeli firm will involve no texting, no surfing, or dozing off - - you will find intensive engagement. The intensity can increase during the open discussion periods – penetrating questions with many unconventional observations – one after the other. No inhibitions about challenging existing logic. This shows up in all aspects of Israeli culture – in the way university students speak with their professors, employees challenging their bosses, sergeants questioning their generals, and clerks second-guessing government ministers. Employees with unvarnished, unintimidated, and undistracted attitudes. The Hebrew word (really German Slavic) chutzpah – has the meaning and context of innovative thinking and entrepreneurial spirit – gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, and incredible guts.