Book review: Do you dare to be the black sheep?

A creative idea is one that addresses the problem (Charlan Nemeth)

I think that we have all been in one of these moments: creating a brainstorming session with the hope of reaching a magical moment when a fantastic idea is born through sheer group power. Thinking that great and unique ideas are born only when they are discussed in a group is wrong. It is wrong as the only thing really getting produced is conformity and wasted time. So group meetings are the worst plan if you want a creative idea to be born. Are you in shock? Keep scrolling.

Charlan Nemeth will dare you to think differently in her book. *No! The power of disagreement in a world that wants to get along really touched a sensitive spot in my heart. I always thought that groups perform better in decision making because they have, presumably, more information ( this is called the 50-million-frenchmen-principle: an assumption that truth lies in numbers). This myth is busted and disintegrated in this book.

We need the rebels. We need the people who dare to think and act differently because they have a genuinely different perspective on things (think of famous dissenters in history like Freud, Galilei, Snowden, Jesus etc.). Dissenters are not liked and they get a lot of hate.To have the courage to stand up and say: “why do we do things like this?”, “ I do not agree with your perspective” or to obnoxiously ask questions like a hungry bounty hunter because you want to get to the bottom of things , all of these attitudes will not win you many friends.

Charlan pinpoints to a valid reason why dissenters are few in numbers in our society: we prioritize consensus and peace over disruption. Do not rock the boat, why dig up the past, why can’t you just agree and move on? These and a myriad of other advices makes disagreement look like something to be avoided and feared. No wonder that so many people conform and build up anger: who would like to dare to be the black sheep in the room?

People can follow the majority as much as 70 percent of the time, even when that majority is wrong (Charlan Nemeth)

I will tell you what you MUST have in order to be the efficient black sheep in the room: consistency. If you are consistent in your point of view you have increased chances of making other people shift. There is a sweet spot that you can use: to compromise in the very last minute so you appear consistent and flexible enough to achieve an agreement. Think of the soft water which keeps on hitting the rocks: by being constant and consistent it eventually breaks the huge giants.

Another critical piece of information from this book is about creativity. A very fascinating fact is that whether the dissenter is right or wrong, he or she will contribute to an increase in the creativity of the majority’s ideas. It only takes one black sheep to plant doubt and let new seeds of creativity to emerge. This is the reason why successful corporations try to bring together people from very different backgrounds, whom you would not usually put together.

Have you noticed that I called the dissenter a black sheep? Why did I do that? I could have named it the rainbow sheep, right? Do you dare to disagree with me?

I have a very long in depth review of this fantastic book, you can watch it here:

A key point to take in your day to day life from this book is beautifully put into words by Charlan:

We especially have much to learn from those who think differently from us, the ones we might not seek as friends

This quote makes me reflect upon all of the moments when humans managed to exclude, lash out, belittle, mock , murder, humiliate, discriminate, block or hate people who dared to show them that they might have been wrong. It also makes me think of how narrow our group of friends can become: how can we think differently if we keep on having the same people in our company for decades?