Ideas worth spreading

How to disagree productively and find common ground

6,236,753 views | Julia Dhar • TED@BCG Toronto

Some days, it feels like the only thing we can agree on is that we can't agree -- on anything. Drawing on her background as a world debate champion, Julia Dhar offers three techniques to reshape the way we talk to each other so we can start disagreeing productively and finding common ground -- over family dinners, during work meetings and in our national conversations.

Some days, it feels like the only thing we can agree on is that we can't agree -- on anything. Drawing on her background as a world debate champion, Julia Dhar offers three techniques to reshape the way we talk to each other so we can start disagreeing productively and finding common ground -- over family dinners, during work meetings and in our national conversations.

About the speaker

Julia Dhar

Business strategist, champion debater

See speaker profile

BCG's Julia Dhar is a champion of ideas, facts and productive disagreement.

Cass Sunstein | Oxford University Press, 2011 | Book

Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide

My treasured mentor Cass Sunstein takes on the phenomenon of group polarization — how spending time with people who agree with us can trap us in our existing modes of thinking, and harden us to new ideas.

Alan Iny and Julia Dhar | BCG.com, 2018 | Article

"Five Ways to Nudge Your Brainstorms to Greatness"

With my friend and colleague Alan Iny, I lay out a practical guide to getting provocative ideas out in the open, helping people feel welcome and creating a safe place for radical ideas to emerge.

Morgan Neville | Tremolo Productions, 2018 | Watch

"Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

In my TED Talk, I share the story of a constructive disagreement between two remarkable public figures: children's television entertainer Mister Fred Rogers and Senator John Pastore. It is beautiful example of shared reality and the humility of uncertainty. The entire exchange is captured in this documentary from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville.

About TED Institute

Every year, TED works with a group of select companies and foundations to identify internal ideators, inventors, connectors, and creators. Drawing on the same rigorous regimen that has prepared speakers for the TED main stage, TED Institute works closely with each partner, overseeing curation and providing intensive one-on-one talk development to sharpen and fine tune ideas. The culmination is an event produced, recorded, and hosted by TED, generating a growing library of valuable TED Talks that can spur innovation and transform organizations.

Read more about the TED Institute