Our times are getting more and more argumentative.
Culture wars are dividing nations. You are asked to take a position and agree with it right or wrong. This style of disputation is finding its way into businesses as well, where disagreeing with a statement or a proposal is seen as a declaration of war, a destroyer of relationships.
So how can we deal with this increasingly disputatious world? Jason Pontin has suggested four rules to enable civilised discussions. I added a fifth.
Here are Pontin’s Law of Parsimonious Claims: my new 5 rules on how to speak to each other over contentious issues;
1. Say nothing you know to be untrue, whether to deceive, confuse, or, worst of all, encourage a wearied cynicism.
2. Make mostly falsifiable assertions or offer prescriptions whose outcomes could be measured, always explaining how your assertion or prescription could be tested.
3. When you have no evidence but possess only moral intuitions, say so candidly, and accept you must coexist with people who have different intuitions.
4. When evidence proves you wrong, admit it cheerfully, pleased that your mistake has contributed to the general progress.
5. Finally, as you listen, assume the good faith of your opponents, unless you have proof otherwise. Judge their assertions and prescriptions based on the plain meaning of their words, rather on than what you guess to be their motives. Often, people will tell you about experiences they found significant. If they are earnest, hear them sympathetically.
I think this is a great list for companies to abide by… now how can we get American’s to think this way?