Arguing with The Boss.

When you’re in a company, and especially if you’re a leader, it’s important to farm for dissent because it’s not normal to disagree with your boss … “My job is to please my boss,” as opposed to we want people to feel “My job is to help Powder or Netflix or Pure Software grow. Sometimes, if to help them grow, I’ve got to be willing to argue with my manager,” and that’s okay. And so because it’s difficult, emotionally, in most companies to disagree with your manager, we call it farming for dissent. And we have managers do things like, ‘What are three things you would do differently if you were in my job?’ I would regularly, every 18 months or so, do that with 50 top executives and have them write down what would be different … And that was an example of farming for dissent … To disagree silently is disloyal.

- Reed Hastings, former CEO of Netflix.

I think it’s safe to say that there’s no need to farm for dissent in any workplace.

Dissent grows wild and falls to the ground, ripe, plump, and juicy in every office, cubicle, assembly line, and staff room.

It isn’t dissent that needs farming.

It’s good, smart, confident bosses.