Creative Conflict

 

3

Mental Models

Look inside any organization and you’ll find two types of people. Insiders are the lock-step loyalists—the types who go along to fit in, no matter the cost. Outsiders are the contrarians at the gate, the ones who revel in contention and never met a battle they wouldn’t escalate. Despite their obvious differences, as David Brooks observed in The New York Times, insiders and outsiders share much in common.¹ Both see the world as black and white, all or nothing, on the bus or off. Both dwell in a state of defensiveness, rigidity, anxiety, and fear.

In negotiating, outsiders tend to be ferocious bargainers, ready to blow up the deal unless they win on every point. Back in the day, we knew a subcontractor named Mike, a rejecter ...