Leading through Opposition: How to Overcome Opposition Gracefully

“I don’t understand why we have to do that (do it that way).”  No matter how well we try to explain our proposals, we will regularly encounter participants in our meetings or on our teams who oppose our ideas.  Dealing well with challenges from participants who oppose what we are doing or how we are doing it is an important part of leadership.  In this workshop, leaders learn seven different ways to face opposition without becoming threatened and without resorting to threats.   

• The principle of sufficient reason
• The Socratic approach and beyond: “I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you.”
• The “weakest argument”, the argument from authority
• “Trust me.”
• “Let’s experiment and reflect.”
• “Let’s work towards this.”
• Involving them: distinguishing between the goal and the means of achieving the goal.