In violent agreement

Coming to the end of a stupidly brief visit to work with a Canadian team that has been a client since 2002. In the intervening years their thinking about our processes had ossified, different parts of the organisation had come to believe that they and they alone were the true adherents to our original thinking. Sometimes our stuff generates a quasi-religious excitement that whilst gratifying in the short term is a little hard to manage over time.

My brief was to 'reboot' the process without leaving anyone feeling that the efforts of the last seven years had been misspent. We got through the messy he-said-she-said phase quickly enough and re-established a sense of common purpose.

Observing that people are 'in violent agreement with each other' is a useful phrase and I recommend it to all.