When top Amazon executives were debating in the mid-2000s whether to greenlight Kindle, the now ubiquitous e-reader, sparks flew in the boardroom. Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s retail business at the time, openly challenged Jeff Bezos in front of the board. Wilke argued the venture would fail because Amazon lacked experience creating hardware. Bezos conceded Wilke had a point but argued that the value of the experiment creating software-embedded devices outweighed the risk to Amazon.  

Later, Wilke says, “Turns out I was right on everything that I called out, and Jeff was still right to say we should do it. [We] created a valuable skill set that we can use to invent new things on behalf of customers.”

That debate—part of Amazon’s “disagree and commit” process—is one of the reasons Amazon has so successfully created so many new lines of business. It also reveals a paradox: Leaders today are increasingly striving to create a sense of social cohesion, sometimes described as psychological safety, where people feel included and that their views matter.

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