Welcome the Contrarian

welcome disruption
healthy creative tension
sparks innovation

I have a confession to make: Sometimes in a collaborative ideation session, I’ll advocate for a position I don’t believe in, just to spark some debate.

I may purposefully throw out some bad ideas, or ideas that I don’t think are worth pursuing, just to put more options on the table.

I like to be the contrarian. I like to disrupt convention. Bring me your best ideas and I’ll be happy to poke holes in them and tell you all the places where they’ll fail. In fact, some clients explicitly call me for this purpose.

I assure you that I am not trying to be difficult or antagonistic in these situations.

My motives have always been altruistic:

To create space for the best work to emerge. To catalyze debate that will evoke new ways of thinking and spark new ideas.

This part of me lives in a tension with the part of me that seeks to create peace and harmony, that wants to people-please and so I can be loved by all.

So why do it at all? Why not just be agreeable, a cheerleader for the party line?

Someone needs to disagree. Someone needs to inject some creative tension into a boardroom so that the best ideas can surface. We need disruption to spark innovation.

A room where everyone agrees on the best path forward is a room where no innovation happens. It’s a room where no creativity happens. I’s a room of followers. A room of death.

Creative tension is the breeding ground for innovation.

With one caveat: it must be healthy creative tension.

When I was younger, I didn’t know how to wield my powers well. I often came across as harsh and insensitive.

Over the years I have learned to be more gentle in my push-back. Whether I’m serving on a charity event committee, working with my staging partner to prepare a client’s home for sale, or in a creative brainstorming meeting with clients, fostering healthy creative tension has helped pull the best out of my colleagues, collaborators, and clients.

Everyone wants to believe that their ideas are great. We find comfort in consensus. But if you’re in a meeting where everyone agrees, you’re in a sinking ship.

Welcome the contrarians with open arms. If you let them, they will help you access new levels of creativity and innovation.

Today the planet Mercury, the planet of ideas and communication, forms a square — a challenging aspect — to Uranus, the planet of disruption and change. Where can you disrupt yourself and your ideas in service of new levels of innovation and creativity?