So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New

Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for

free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!

Welcome to the HBR idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beary.

People disagree about a lot of things at work. From small issues like how a task

should be done to big ones, like which strategic goals to prioritize. Ideally,

these conflicts are settled with thoughtful debate and collaborative decision-making, but

that's not usually how it works. More typically, you see leaders or the loudest voices

went out, leaving others resentful, and sometimes people don't even try to hash out

differences of opinion. They'd prefer to avoid a fight.

Our guest today wants us to learn how to disagree with colleagues in healthier and more effective

ways to create the best outcomes for our teams, customers, and shareholders. He's going

to teach us the rules of good debate, which he knows a lot about.

Both so is a two-time world champion debater, former coach of the Harvard College Debating

Union, and the author of the book Good Arguments, how debate teaches us to listen and be heard.

Oh, welcome.

Good day, Allison. Thanks so much for having me.

To the obvious first question is, how did you become a world champion debater?

So the story starts when I moved from South Korea to Australia at the age of eight,

and I didn't speak English at the time. And I quickly learned that one of the hardest

things about moving across language lines is adjusting to live conversation, but especially

to disagreements. Because when you're having an argument, the speed becomes kind of unpredictable

...