Reed Hastings has told the secret of his success as CEO at Netflix is ​​what he calls, “farming for dissent.” Disputes with the boss, he says, let new ideas and strategies for growth come to a leader's attention, and a leader's efforts to attract dissent help people feel more comfortable doing it. While I understand the concept, the language can sound negative: disagreement, discord, discord; acting against another person. I prefer to clarify what makes dissent so positive.

Ultimately, leaders want informed employees who feel encouraged to contribute ideas without fear of punishment whenever they see ways to improve. Beyond areas where we may disagree, I want every employee with a strong idea to share it. Instead of farming for dissent, the approach we take at our company is to cultivate constructive insights—valuable feedback for improvement and an environment where everyone feels comfortable releasing it. Here's how we cultivate that culture.

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Educate and encourage

A continuous flow of constructive knowledge can keep a company nimble and adaptable, but not all disagreements are constructive. Disagreements in the form of yelling or inappropriate language can hinder constructive communication. Emotions or ulterior motives can inadvertently spark disagreement.

To practice constructive and positive knowledge of “disagreement” called first requires respect for this practice as part of the team's commitment to do it. Disagreeing with any decision just for the sake of disagreeing ignores the purpose of the activity and shows little respect for the team effort. Instead of insurance constructive feedback, this approach simply presents another problem for the team to solve. Disagreement can also be less constructive when it lacks all the relevant information needed to be more precise or accurate. Still, if someone takes the time and energy to brainstorm and present an idea and their boss shuts it down without even a second thought, they may feel less comfortable offering an idea next time. Bosses do this enough and people stop sharing their ideas.

Through education, training and encouragement, leaders can help empower diverse knowledge to be more constructive and keep ideas flowing. The main focus in our company this year has been to get everyone better trained and understand the business model. By facilitating this training, their ideas will be more informed, based on knowledge and metrics, and increasingly constructive. The better our training becomes, the more of these constructive ideas we can begin to implement.

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Create safe spaces to get better feedback

Some employees may come from toxic workplaces where their ideas were dismissed or ridiculed, making them reluctant to share. While we cannot change them past workplace traumawe can create a safe, supportive environment that builds trust and encourages open communication.

We aim to ensure that all employees feel comfortable providing feedback, regardless of their previous experiences. Inciting emotional security and by demonstrating ongoing support, we help everyone feel confident in contributing their ideas.

We send out surveys to gather insights about individual experiences and work closely with HR and managers to address deeper concerns. Empowering managers with the tools for effective confrontation allows them to ask better questions and gather more constructive feedback. These one-on-ones provide a safe space for employees to regain confidence and feel valued for their contributions.

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Most importantly, show results

To develop one the culture of faith, not only do employees need to feel safe from being punished for sharing ideas, but they also need to see their ideas implemented. If all we did was talk and ask questions but never implement changes, people would stop trying to share. They need training and encouragement, but also action to believe that their ideas can really contribute to the company.

We recently started implementing Start, Stop, Continue. In this company-wide activity, everyone splits into teams to answer the same question: What would they like to see end, start or keep the same? Teams of six to seven brainstorm to create a strong list. They then prioritize their suggestions by agreeing on the most important point they want to start, stop and continue, and send that more focused list to leadership. We review and, if necessary, narrow the ideas down to those we support before sending that list back to the entire team to vote on a winning idea, which we will implement. Sometimes, ideas are more unanimous and easier to settle on, but this process keeps ideas like, “We're taking half the year off” from going further than a suggestion, and great ideas always emerge. We do Start, Stop, Continue to highlight that every person's voice matters and we want to listen and make a difference.

Sometimes we may have to reject good ideas. Our head of business intelligence has constructive ideas all the time, and we implement many of them, but not all. Perhaps the idea would cost more or require more work than the potential positives in return. Time may be off, too many ideas may already be in the queue, or ideas may need more consideration to produce balanced results. However, seeing many of his ideas implemented encourages him to offer more, realizing that not all of them may be an immediate fit. His confidence rubs off on his team, who also feel confident offering him ideas, creating a continuum ideation cycle.

I make a point to talk to everyone who shares their ideas and offers reasons we may not have been able to implement them, so they know I hear them. Ensuring that people feel heard supports a virtuous circle of knowledge. As long as employees see enough of their ideas implemented, believing that they will be heard, they keep diving in, asking for more good ideas and believing that, when they work, we will implement them. .