TEDxTalk

It’s happened yet again. I’ve watched a TedxTalk that has made the “Official List of Maryam’s Favorite TedxTalks Of All Time”…

Margaret Heffernan, former CEO of five different businesses, delivers a talk called Dare to disagree. In it, she argues that good disagreement is essential to progress. She starts her talk by exploring the story of Alice Stewart, a physician and epidemiologist who pioneered research in the 1950’s that linked x-ray radiation on pregnant women to the onset of childhood cancer. The data clearly indicated that the x-rays were a leading cause of those children developing cancer.

There were two main purposes I found to using Alice Stewart’s story as the narrative accompanying the talk:

First, to share that it took 25 years for the world to catch on and do something about x-rays on pregnant women.

Second, to highlight the fact that Dr. Stewart intentionally worked with a partner who was the complete opposite of her. Her partner’s job was to find ways to prove her wrong, because “it was only by not being able to prove that she was wrong that George could give Alice the confidence she needed to know that she was right.”

It should come as no surprise that I found this talk particularly relevant to Invisible Children.

The first note, and perhaps more profound, is how long it took for the world to respond to Alice Stewart’s findings. As Margaret Heffernan puts it, “It was fully 25 years before the British and American medical establishments abandoned the practice of x-raying pregnant women. The data was out there, it was open, it was freely available, but nobody wanted to know. A child a week was dying, but nothing changed.” Joseph Kony and the LRA have been operating for over 25 years (27 to be exact) and the parallels are uncanny. The information is out there, it’s freely available, and the data speaks for itself. And while I don’t agree that it’s as far as “nobody want[ing] to know”, the conflict is still not over. The world knows, politicians know, and it still hasn’t been solved. However, similar to Alice Stewart, we’re not stopping because we know we’re right. And that leads into the second part about Alice working with a partner who was the complete opposite.

The model of collaborative thinking that Alice and George used is one that is utilized at Invisible Children. While there isn’t an in-house disagreer by the name of George, the motto here has always been, “The best idea wins”. It’s an invitation that demands everyone to think and voice their thoughts when they think they have a really good idea, whether it be from an intern like myself or our CEO Ben Keesey. By being open about voicing concerns and sharing ideas, an environment that fosters creativity and best thought is generated.

So what are your thoughts? Is it necessary to disagree in order for an organization to progress and ultimately succeed? Watch the talk and let us know what you think about Margaret Heffernan’s theory.