Take a view you disagree with seriously
State a position that clashes with yours in terms its holder would accept, and find what it shows that yours does not.
Why it works
The second habit is taking multiple perspectives. The phrase “even when we disagree” is stated in the review, which lists it from the book. The disagreement is the material of the habit, not a reason to stop listening. The review’s summary does not spell out a mechanism for why this works. The reasoning given here is an inference: a view that clashes with yours is the one most likely to show a part of the situation your current frame leaves out.
How to do it
- Pick a disagreement that is live at work right now.
- Write the other person’s position in terms they would accept as a fair account of it.
- List one thing about the situation that their view shows and yours does not.
- Say that back to them, and ask whether you have it right.
Evidence
The second habit, taking multiple perspectives, is named in the Integral Leadership Review summary (which gives the phrase “even when we disagree”) and in the Cultivating Leadership summary of Garvey Berger and Johnston (2015). The mechanism described in this practice is an inference from those summaries and was not stated by the authors in the sources read. (anecdotal)
Stating the other view fairly does not require agreeing with it, and it can be done in bad faith as a formality. The practice works only if you are genuinely looking for what the other view shows.
Sources
- Integral Leadership Review (2015). Book review of Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston, Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders.
- Cultivating Leadership, book page for Simple Habits for Complex Times (Garvey Berger & Johnston), accessed 2026-10-14.
Common mistake
Listening to the other view looking for the flaw you can answer, which keeps your own frame as the only one in the room.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Jennifer Garvey Berger’s Simple Habits for Complex Times
- Ask what can we learn here
Before you give an answer, ask what can be learned from the situation in front of you.
- Hold feedback as one partial view
Treat each piece of feedback as one partial view of the situation, not the final verdict on it.
- Map the system around a problem, not its single cause
Trace the people, rules and feedback loops (chains in which an effect feeds back into its own cause) around a recurring problem, and where its boundary seems to sit, before you settle on its cause.
- Sort the situation by its domain before you decide
Before you choose a response, decide whether the situation is simple, complicated, complex or chaotic.
- Act on what the present shows and let the next step appear
Take the next small action you can see, observe what it does, and let that observation decide the step after it.
- Notice when you reach for a simple story
Catch the moment you explain a messy event with one tidy cause and a confident prediction, and write the story down as a story.
- Test the sense that you are right
Treat a strong feeling of being right as a claim to check, and name in advance what would show you were wrong.
Related concepts
- Vertical Development Practices: How Adults Grow, Not Just Add Skills
Heat, colliding perspectives, and sense-making — and what the research can and cannot promise
- Torbert’s Seven Action Logics of Leadership
Seven ways leaders make sense of pressure, how common each is, and how to work with your own
- Adaptive Leadership, Made Practical
Distinguishing adaptive challenges from technical problems — and leading accordingly
- Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory (AQAL), Made Practical
Five elements for catching what your view of a situation leaves out, held as a map rather than a truth
- The Immunity to Change Process, Step by Step
Why a change you truly want keeps not happening, and the step-by-step way Kegan and Lahey take it apart
- Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
Moving from being run by your assumptions to being able to examine them
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