Conflict - - The key to Success!!

I know the title itself provokes an obvious question "How drunk is this guy"

I would have agreed with the same until I saw this phenomenal talk by Margaret Heffernan on TED

As it turns out in most of our daily lives whether at work or at home we as Human beings try to resort to the company of people whom think like us, and have common thought patterns and inadvertently would act like us when put under the same circumstances with the same set of input factors to work upon.....

Why do we do this?? I Why do we not have friends that hate the music we love?? Why do we avoid the uncle who does not think highly of our Career choice and it's outcome??

The answer is rather straight and perhaps a bit demeaning " Because we want to avoid Conflict"

All of us alike would not like to get into conversations or situations when we are NOT sure that we would emerge victorious....

Is this a healthy attitude??
Does it promote the best solutions and the following success??

Let us try and answer this with some more questions...

Did the early man have conflict upon a whether I wheel should be round or square??

Did scientists have conflict over whether light is matter or wave??

Did Galileo get into a conflict about Earth's shape??

The answer to the above questions is a resounding "YES"

What this hints at or probably shouts out loud is that every time we try and avoid a conflict of thought, judgements, decision....... We are depriving ourselves of the chance to take the best decision at a given point of time....

Conclusion by any means is NOT to promote fights at home and work or to create a negative image of fellow human beings in each others minds..... BUT to promote disagreement and conflict when fueled by the right rationale thoughts and to ensure that we as a part of our families and our organization believe in asking the 'Difficult Questions'

As only when you ask such questions is when you have a chance to validate an opinion / pending decision with tangible proof

So do not fear Conflict as it may actually help you to ask the question of that is on everyone's mind but is often ignored due to the fear of not conforming with a group....