- Be deliberate and disciplined. Famous rebels like Charles Darwin deployed specific strategies for selling their theories to mainstream audiences, and so can you.
- Know the difference between reckless and principled insubordination. If you're contributing to society and taking action from a place of authenticity, consider your rebellion principled.
- Don't take rebels for granted. Principled rebellion is vital for improving society. It's also part of what makes your life and the lives of those around you rich, tun, and fulfilling.
- Point out the cost of inaction. Adults rarely (if ever) switch brands of soap, yogurt, and cable providers, even when they don't like them. Non-partisan voters overwhelmingly vote for the incumbent in political elections. By sticking with undesirable goods, services, and decisions, we allow negative events to dominate daily life when healthier, more meaningful alternatives exist. Next time you want to convince someone of an idea or approach, remind them that doing nothing when problems exist harms your well-being.
- Know the four psychological boosters. Gaining insight into the mechanisms that fuel voluntary conformity on our part will help you to resist conformity pressures. What pulls for conformity and legitimization of a corrupt state of affairs include a lack of personal control, threats to the system, dependence on the system, and hope of upward social mobility.
- Acknowledge your status quo bias. It's human nature to defer to long-standing, widely accepted practices and beliefs. Would-be insubordinates among us must acknowledge this bias so that they can deal with it and ultimately overcome it.
- Bring dissenters into your teams. Exposed to a dissenter's viewpoint, you open yourself to testing reality and raising questions about your own viewpoints. With a single rebel airing alternate and unpopular views, a group reduces its confirmation bias and motivated reasoning and increases its creative output.
- Be patient. Principled insubordinates often initially fail to change other people's attitudes. But over time insubordination ultimately has a much more profound impact, changing how people regard themselves, others, and the world.
- Make openness your default. You don't have to agree with every non-conformist out there. Just hear them out instead of stickin with your existing opinions.
- Devote energy to establishing common bonds with fellow group members, supporting group norms, and adding to the positive group identity. You gain what social scientists refer to as "idiosyncrasy credits." You can "spend" this cultural capital on social support
- and a fair hearing.
- Signal your courage. Principled insubordinates can alter perceptions by publicizing the personal sacrifices they made in bucking the system. Of course, don't go overboard, as that will backfire.
- Don't expect to dazzle everyone right away with your non-conformist idea. Initial reactions to a new idea are usually neither positive nor negative, but ambivalent. If as a rebel you instill enough uncertainty about conventional wisdom, your audience might
- feel impelled to give your idea a fair shot.
- Get some allies to help you. With people on your side who complement your skills, strengths, and viewpoints, you can enhance your capabilities and off-load some of the effort when defying the status quo.
- Build trust with your allies by making yourself vulnerable. Trust emerges as we share adversity with others. If you wish to enlist allies to your cause, tackle difficult challenges and share painful moments together. Shared pain serves as social glue.
- When creating alliances, attend to the dual, opposing psychological needs of individuals in groups. Help people feel certain that they belong in the group and also are valued for expressing their uniqueness. Clarify that deviating to make the group better (not
- conformity) is what characterizes an ideal group member. Regularly attend to both of these psychological needs and you will fire up people's motivation to express unique contributions.
- To withstand distress better, cultivate your new secret weapon: "psychological flexibility." A psychologically flexible person adapts their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to a given situation, making sure their actions remain rooted in whatever it is that's important to them.
- Mobilize the Psychological Flexibility Dashboard. By relying on four provocations, you can devise workable solutions to mentally distressing problems. First, remind yourself of the reason for dissenting. Second, get in touch with your discomfort. Third, get in touch with your coping mechanisms. Fourth, gauge your opportunities.
- Stick with it. Building psychological flexibility using the Dashboard isn't easy, but it's worth the effort. Do the hard work of realizing your full potential.?
- Engage with the Newly Powerless. Pushing against your tribal impulses, reach out to your former adversaries and shore up a shared identity to the extent you can. Provide assurances to everyone involved in the war of ideas--friends, foes, and neutral observers--that their opinions still count.
- Stay focused on the ways in which power compromises self-awareness. Remind yourself frequently of your own established values. Setting aside your need to consolidate power, are your present actions truly consistent with your desired legacy? Do your utmost to keep the playing field leveled for the next generation of conformists and nonconformists alike.
- Nurture critical thinking. Rebels Who Won should welcome good faith skepticism from all quarters, recognizing skepticism's?power to reshape and refine orthodoxy to everyone's benefit.
- To interact more productively with insubordinates, practice self-distancing. People who self-distance experience greater equanimity in emotionally intense situations. By using self-distancing, you become less defensive when exposed to the ideas of people who hold opposing ideological beliefs.
- Cultivate curiosity. When you encounter an opposing or unfamiliar viewpoint, begin from a place of healthy skepticism about your own beliefs. Redirect your attention to what others offer. Talk less and ask more follow-up questions.
- To become more receptive to nonconformist ideas, practice "deliberate humility." When we admit and "own" our fallibility, we feel greater appreciation for the value of principled insubordinates and offer them greater respect. When intellectually humble, we are more willing to fight for the underdog instead of resisting or cowering in silence.
- Treat rebels as uniquely valuable contributors. To maximize a group's collective intelligence, build a culture that affirms certain values: autonomy, critical thinking, freedom of thought, and the desire to seek out useful information regardless of where it originates.
- Fight back against confirmation bias. Make a habit of asking questions that challenge your preexisting beliefs, in particular by raising multiple possible explanations about the behavior of people who think, act, and look differently than yourself.?
- Repeatedly reinforce norms for permitting dissent and embracing it when present. Notice stark shifts when particular non-conformist members speak in terms of a drop in attentiveness (turning to devices and side conversations), insufficient follow-up on what is said (squashing traction), and failing to offer charity (making no attempt to find the truth or rational basis behind someone's words). If you don't think this happens on your team, you are ignoring social activity. We now know that small behavioral shifts will help teams reap the benefits of people who are different and dissenting. We can build groups where intellectual humility, disinterested inquiry, and viewing matters from another person's perspective become commonplace.
- Foster a sense of agency in your kids. To raise principled rebels, youth must believe they can make a difference. Be responsive when your children share past explorations or future plans. Let them know that anxious thoughts and feelings are natural when trying new things?and taking on challenges. Help your kids regulate their emotions.
- Build your kids' critical thinking skills. Principled insubordination hinges on a person's ability to sift through information at their disposal, filter out useful stuff from the bullshit, and convince others to accept the useful stuff as well. Youth must become comfortable asking?questions and distinguishing between high- and low-quality data. They must make a habit of suspending judgment, slowing down their analytical process and letting critical analysis run its course.?
- Expose kids to various forms of courage and give them the language to describe their own bravery. Teach kids to see themselves as "heroes in waiting" - the person who intervenes when injustice presents itself.