When giving or receiving feedback, the statement is true. But I couldn’t stop myself from thinking and challenging it by thinking about different cultures. Does it apply to every culture, especially where people highly avoid confrontation? In Asian cultures, such as Japan, harmony is preferred, and disagreements are extremely discouraged. We might argue that disagreement and misunderstandings are different things as well. Maybe we can change the statement to an explicit misunderstanding better than an implicit misunderstanding. I think, from my cultural perspective, explicit disagreement is not always better than implicit misunderstandings, but mostly better. Sometimes you need to have it implicit but have to make it explicit misunderstanding in one way. It doesn’t have to be a disagreement. Also, I think the author’s point is that when we make the disagreement explicit, it’s out there. We’re not in our heads while understanding things in the wrong way anymore.
- Related Note(s):
- 44: Understanding Differences in Opinions and Perspectives;
- 27a: Increasing awareness of the actions and behaviors;
- 34: Clarity in Organizations;
- 32: Communicating Decisions in Organizations;
- 22: Cross-Cultural Communication;
- 19b: Consent-Based Decision Making;
- Explicit Disagreement is Better Than Implicit Misunderstanding;
- Source(s): Thanks for The Feedback by Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen
