A leader
is most vulnerable to serious mistake when they are emotionally tied to the
topic and surround themselves with people that agree with them. You know the situation, something has you
total engulfed and you absolutely know that you are right. You share the situation with a loved one and
ask their opinion. They feel your pain
and agree with your position 100%. The
problem is they are being supportive not objective!
We
recently attended The 2012 Richard Salant Lecture presented by the New Canaan
Library and hosted this year by Brian Williams (NBC Nightly News). One important topic discussed was the
fragmentation of the US news media into cable channels with different slants
and points of view. The distinguished
guest panel (David Gergen, Peter Goldmark, Jr. and Joe Scarborough) shared
their concern that this created a problem in the US where people can listen to
the “news” that matched their opinion and it stopped people from hearing things
that made them consider alternative ideas.
It seemed like a reasonable hypothesis so I tried it.
This week when I had a strong opinion on something, I continued to share the example with trusted colleagues until I found someone who disagreed with me. Guess what happened – they were also right and I tailored my view.
Do you
search from dissenting opinions? Do you search until you find one? Once you find one, does it typically sway
your opinion?
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4 comments:
What a great insight, thank you very much for sharing! When the leader is confident and secure, he or she is more open to the dissenters' feedbacks.
Hi John,
EXCELLENT message...as always! You are pretty amazing. In just a few words, you hit the nail on the head and make your very important point! Thanks for including me on your distribution list.
hi,
Outstanding idea as always! You are awesome. In just a few terms, you hit the fingernail on the go and create your very essential point! Thanks for such as me on your submission record.
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Your first sentence is a perfect description of a book critiquing the media by Bernard Goldberg. Brian Williams et al. didn't worry about such things when they presented the news with their editorial POV. Specifically a liberal viewpoint. They were the only game in town. Now there's FNC to challenge their slant and suddenly it's a problem. They didn't repect other viewpoints in the news presentations and so those viewers went else where. But according to the distinguished panel the problem isn't with the news organizations it's with the people .
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