That is the main, if you take nothing else, I tell people, if you're not going to read

the book, that's fine.

Just know that there is this crucial distinction between high conflict and good conflict.

Good conflict we need more of, not less.

I'm Rufus Griskem and this is the next big idea.

Today, what is high conflict and how do you get out of it?

In the muggy summer of 1775, delegates from America's 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia.

They met each day in a red brick statehouse, sat together in Windsor Chairs and discussed

revolution. One of the loudest voices among them,

belonged to a pugnacious lawyer named John Adams.

He was plump, bald, short, and sarcastic.

The cause of the revolution was so important that he was willing to push himself

to the brink of collapse. He debated, lectured, and cajoled his fellow delegates until he literally

could not see straight. So he must have been taken aback by the comparatively mellow demeanor

of the young delegate he met for the first time there in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson.

Unlike Adams, Jefferson preferred to keep quiet, folding himself into his Windsor chair,

and hugging his long arms tightly across his chest.

Adams would later recall that throughout the weeks of deliberations,

he'd never heard Jefferson string together more than three sentences.

Adams must have wondered why this young man traveled all the way from Virginia

just to sit there in silence. Did he think he was better than his fellow delegates? Maybe.

Jefferson arrived in Philadelphia weeks after the others.

...