Disagree and commit
Disagree and Commit is a decision-making principle designed to keep organisations moving forward, even when there’s not unanimous agreement on a course of action.
The idea is straightforward:
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Encourage healthy debate.
People are invited to voice concerns, share data, and challenge proposals. This stage is critical for uncovering risks, surfacing alternative approaches, and ensuring diverse perspectives are considered. -
Make a decision.
Once all viewpoints have been heard and weighed, a decision is made. This may be via consensus, but often—especially under time or resource constraints—it will require a final call. -
Commit fully, even if you disagreed.
If your perspective didn’t prevail, you set aside personal preference and support the decision as if it were your own. Publicly and operationally, you back it without undermining it through passive resistance or second-guessing.
Why it matters:
- Avoids decision paralysis—work doesn’t stall while waiting for unanimous buy-in.
- Builds trust—people know their input is valued even if it’s not adopted.
- Improves execution speed—once the path is chosen, the team moves in unison.
The strength of this principle lies in the balance between open dissent during deliberation and unified execution afterward. Without the first, decisions risk being shallow; without the second, decisions fail in practice.