Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 102

challenge to the acceptance of loyal dissent occurs
when we overvalue harmony inside our organizations.
Psychologist and long-time intelligence community
researcher J. Richard Hackman has found that “teams
whose members share good feelings and a spirit of
camaraderie run the risk of groupthink. Dissenting
views about what the group is doing may be ignored
or squelched—or even self-censored by worried
members who do not want to spoil things by raising
questions.”11
The tendency to groupthink stems from the natural
desire of military organizations to minimize internal
conflict. We cannot help it. A smoothly running unit
is generally considered to be indicative of an effective and cohesive atmosphere. However, the problem
with things running too smoothly, as Harvard professor Ronald Heifetz points out, is that “differences in
perspective are the engine of human progress.”12 Loyal
dissent provides leaders with this difference in perspective, and that can be quite helpful to our bosses.
Hackman goes on to argue that, while dissenting
views may make some members feel uncomfortable,
these view are useful bec ause they generate new ideas
and creative approaches to problems when harnessed
properly. Such new ideas and creative approaches
lead to successful winning organizations. Leaders can
mistakenly attribute success directly to a unit’s level of
cohesion, when in fact unit cohesion is really a result
of a unit’s successes.13 Winning breeds cohesion in a
locker room, but cohesion does not always lead to victory. In contrast, loyal dissent can help lead to success
by promoting useful innovation; success that then
contributes to unit cohesion at all levels.

Setting the Conditions for Loyal
Dissent in Your Unit
Loyal dissent does not undermine our leaders;
its purpose is to support them and help them make
better decisions. Therefore, a leader may need to invest
valuable time to teach his or her subordinates how to
properly and productively dissent in the unit.
For their part, aspiring loyal dissenters understand
that dissent is risky for a variety of reasons; therefore
will not be undertaken lightly. Dissenting too often
makes one a troublemaker, too seldom and you gain the
title of yes-man. Nevertheless, good leaders will facilitate an avenue or mechanism to encourage loyal dissent
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by setting conditions for it to occur properly and then
leveraging it to their advantage.

Five Methods to Leverage Loyal
Dissent in Your Formation
First, leaders who wish to harness loyal dissent
must look within themselves and determine what kind
of command climate they really wish to establish. They
have to decide for themselves what role they expect
their subordinates to play.
Subordinates who are conditioned to believe they
serve only the leader’s interests will rarely let that leader hear anything but praise. In such an environment,
leaders will tolerate very little loyal dissent and subordinates understand that they only exist to carry out the
leader’s explicit directives and wishes.14 Very few of us
desire this type of organization.
In contrast, in an environment where subordinates
are taught that they exist to help the leader successfully lead and help collectively to achieve the organization’s purpose, respectful challenges to the leader’s
ideas from time to time may actually be a welcome
addition to the process. Good leaders demand that
subordinates provide this dissent even though the
process may be somewhat uncomfortable for both
parties.
Moreover, to make the process work, good leaders
must learn to separate the idea from the person delivering it. While professionals must endeavor to speak
clearly, calmly, and succinctly to their leaders, we
must all remember that loyal dissent can be scary for
even the most accomplished subordinates, and allowances must be made for inexperience and insecurity.
It is not easy to offer a new idea to the boss, especially
when he or she may not want to hear it right away.
It is also important to bear in mind that the dissenting soldier may be quite nervous and insecure of
their status immediately following the expression of
loyal dissent. As a result, the loyal dissenter may over
compensate for this insecurity by acting loud, scared,
or boisterous.15 Consequently, the dissenting soldier
may have a tone that the leader finds troubling, or the
person may inadvertently make the leader angry.
We all have a normal, natural tendency to attempt
to avoid criticism. However, good leaders must learn
to master this emotion, overriding their natural fear
of constructive criticism from juniors and appearing
November-December 2014  MILITARY REVIEW