We can teach you how to disagree

When businesses suffer from groupthink they miss out on opportunities for growth, innovation and profits. Enter The Provocation People, a left-leaning LSE professor and pro-Brexit, free market former MP, to help you embrace disagreement

Businesses suffer from groupthink – even when they claim to embrace disagreement and dissent. And individuals are frequently hostile towards different perspectives and the people who hold them.

The human condition is wired for agreement and conformity. We all have a deep-seated desire to fit in and we care about what other group members think about us. A lot. This leads to herd beliefs being quickly acted upon to the detriment of effective decision-making.

In a world dominated by radical uncertainty – where advancements in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and synthetic biology are reshaping industries and our lives – businesses are held back when dissenting voices are silenced. Organisations that fail to challenge consensus risk missing out on transformative opportunities for innovation, growth and profitability.

The world isn’t driven forward by consensus – growth demands difference, risking discomfort, and progress comes from challenging ideas

Enter The Provocation People, our new consultancy founded on our own adversarial collaboration. As reluctant provocateurs, Paul and Steve share a common instinct with most people: we prefer agreement. But we also recognise that the world isn’t driven forward by consensus. Growth demands difference, risking discomfort, and progress comes from challenging ideas, not merely acquiescing to them. Rising above these instincts, we will help businesses do the same – because, despite our preferences, agreement alone will not unlock the innovations we all need.

exemplifies the power of adversarial collaboration, whereby different beliefs are flushed out rather than hidden away. Despite our differing political and intellectual views, our mutual respect, curiosity, and humour have forged a partnership that transcends ideology. This dynamic is the foundation of The Provocation People and serves as a model for the businesses we will work with. In our view, disagreement is not an obstacle but an opportunity for growth.

The pitfalls of groupthink

It was the pitfalls of groupthink that brought us together. There were several ways in which policymakers could have responded to the threat of Covid, and yet the debates around the world focused only on reducing transmission risks across the whole population through social distancing measures applied to the whole population. We were both convinced that several of these policy responses would cause much more harm than good when the social and economic costs of social distancing are properly accounted for. With each new study showing the harms of two years of social isolation for many people, we feel increasingly vindicated.

But we want to do so much more than say “I told you so”. We are determined that decision-making in public policy and private companies breaks free from the shackles of groupthink. And we consider ourselves to be the perfect messengers for delivering on that. This is because genuine cognitive diversity in organisations requires that group members are willing to listen not only to alternative perspectives but also to the people putting forward the ideas – even when we strongly disagree with them about a topic that matters greatly to us.

We first met on a zoom call. Steve was meeting a left-leaning LSE Professor and Paul was meeting a free-market Tory MP. We didn’t think the meeting would last very long. Four years on, and our friendship goes from strength to strength. We disagree about many things. Steve’s much more trusting of the market than Paul, who would like to see much more redistribution than Steve. Steve loves sailing, Paul does not. Paul loves festivals, Steve does not. We like each other because, amongst other things, we have found each other to be kind and generous.

A rare bromance

Enough of the bromance. The point is that our friendship is quite rare given the human proclivity to engage in what psychotherapists refer to as splitting – to think of people as either all good or all bad. A few of Paul’s Remainer colleagues at the LSE have asked him how he can be friends with Brexiteer Steve. They can’t see past his views on one issue to even contemplate that they might agree with him on other issues, let alone to allow themselves to give a moment’s thought to the fact that he might be a decent bloke. Formal education is no antidote to splitting people into “us” and “them”, “good” and “bad”..

We are all drawn towards forming, and being in, groups in all walks of life where we can all nod along in agreement with another rather than shake our heads in disagreement. So, the only effective way to truly enhance cognitive diversity is to make it easier for us to be more receptive to different ideas without having to think too hard about it.

The tendency to reject those with differing views – beliefism – creates echo chambers where innovation is stifled. The Provocation People aim to reduce beliefism, encouraging respectful discourse and diverse perspectives. By doing so, organisations can unlock the full potential of their people and break free from the constraints of groupthink.

At the heart of our approach is a simple yet profound principle: transformation is achieved not by suppressing disagreement, but by embracing it. Organisations must transcend groupthink, turning diverse perspectives into a competitive advantage. We will work with businesses to embed cognitive diversity into their cultures, unlocking innovation, boosting productivity and thereby driving competitiveness, profitability and happiness at work.

Steve Baker has 30 years of leadership experience spanning military aerospace engineering, private sector software engineering, parliament and government. He is a Privy Councillor and a Fellow of the RSA. He was previously MP for Wycombe for 14 years, including serving as a minister in the Cabinet Office, the Northern Ireland Office and the Department for Exiting the EU.

Paul Dolan wrote the questions used by the ONS to monitor national wellbeing, and he is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Happiness by Design and Happy Ever After. Paul was named one of the 100 most influential academics globally. He has worked with several government bodies and Fortune 500 companies on how to embed behavioural science into organisations, including HSBC, Pfizer, HMRC, Gallup, Transport for London, NHS, and Google.