The Great Debaters

A great movie, by the way!

“There is further evidence that conflict leads to better and more innovative decisions, as well as increased group productivity. It was demonstrated that among established groups, performance tended to improve more when there was conflict among members than when there was fairly close agreement. The investigators observed that when groups analyzed decisions that had been made by the individual members of that group, the average improvement among the high-conflict groups was seventy-three percent greater than that of those groups characterized by low-conflict conditions. (Hall, J. and M.S. Williams. A Comparison of Decision-Making Performances in Established and Ad-Hoc Groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Feb. 1966, p. 217) Other researchers have found similar results: Groups composed of members with different interests tend to produce higher quality solutions to a variety of problems than do homogeneous groups. (Hoffman, R.L. Homogeneith of Member Personality and Its Effect on Group Problem Solving. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. Jan. 1959, pp. 27-32; Hoffman, R.L. and N.R.F. Maier. Quality and Acceptance of Problem Solutions by Members of Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Groups. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. Mar. 1961, pp. 401-407) The preceding findings suggest that conflict in the group might be an indication of strength rather than, in the traditional view, of weakness.” (176)
- Robbins, Stephen P. 1997. Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Fifth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

"Conflict has the marvelous effect of keeping me from becoming proud, thinking I don't need God. I'm reminded in these situations where my strength comes from--Jehovah Jireh."
- Henry, Jim, "Character Forged from Conflict," Leadership. Spring, 1998. p. 26

"Conflict needs to be mined for its nugget of truth. My ministry has been positively shaped much more by the hundreds of criticisms I've received than it has by a thousand compliments"
- Ficken, Jock E., "Shielding Your Heart from Strife," Leadership. Spring, 1998. p. 29.