Why So Much Disagreement?

We’ve all been there: the fresh, creative idea is pitched to varied reactions. Some people love it, others reject it.

ILR Associate Professor Devon Proudfoot and co-author Wayne Johnson of the University of Utah break it down in an Aug. 20 “Harvard Business Review” article, “Research: How to Build Consensus Around a New Idea.” 

Based on their paper, “Greater variability in judgements of the value of novel ideas,” published in “Nature Human Behavior,” they explained they found “that the more novel an idea, the more people disagreed about its worth.”

Disagreement is often interpreted as risk, and creates “a barrier to innovation by making more creative ideas seem less appealing,” Proudfoot and Johnson wrote.  

“Understanding why people are more likely to disagree about the value of creative ideas creates opportunities to anticipate when a lack of consensus may occur,” said the authors, who offer suggestions in the article about how to get evaluators on the same page.