Under Robert’s Rules of Order, a vote that has been taken can be reopened with a motion to reconsider. Only certain members may make it. An early edition says the motion must be made “by a member who voted with the prevailing side,” and it “can be made on the same or succeeding day.”
A losing member cannot reopen the question. Under current rules, the Municipal Research and Services Center explains, rescinding a decision without previous notice “takes a two-thirds vote of votes cast to pass.”
On December 13, 2000, Vice President Al Gore conceded the presidential election to George W. Bush. “I accept the finality of this outcome, which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College.”
He added: “for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.” And: “We will stand together behind our new President.”
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance opposed President Carter’s plan to rescue the American hostages in Iran by military force. On April 21, 1980, he gave Carter his resignation letter: “I wish I could support you in it. But for the reasons we have discussed I cannot.”
Carter accepted it. The resignation was announced on April 28.
A quotation attributed to General Colin Powell is repeated in American leadership training and military writing: “When we are debating an issue, loyalty means giving me your honest opinion, whether you think I’ll like it or not.” Once a decision is made, it continues, the debate ends, and loyalty means “executing the decision as if it were your own.”
Leadership writers trace the words to Oren Harari’s 2002 book The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. The research for this post did not find them in any text written by Powell himself.
On April 23, 1949, Defense Secretary Louis Johnson canceled the Navy’s new aircraft carrier, the USS United States. Navy officers kept fighting the decision in Congress. On October 13, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Louis Denfeld, testified: “There is a steady campaign to relegate the Navy to a convoy and antisubmarine service.”
Time magazine called it “the revolt of the admirals.” On October 27, 1949, President Truman removed Denfeld as Chief of Naval Operations.
On April 5, 1951, Representative Joseph Martin read a letter from General Douglas MacArthur on the floor of the House. MacArthur disagreed publicly with the administration’s limited war in Korea. “There is no substitute for victory,” he wrote.
On April 11 President Truman relieved him. The statement said that MacArthur “is unable to give his wholehearted support to the policies of the United States Government and of the United Nations.” It also said: “Full and vigorous debate on matters of national policy is a vital element in the constitutional system.”
Speak now or forever hold your peace. At a wedding, objections are asked for once. After that, silence is consent.
Get on board. The decision is made, and it is time to support it.
That ship has sailed. It is too late to change this.
Let’s not relitigate this. The argument is over, and reopening it is unwelcome.
Monday-morning quarterback. A person who criticizes a decision after the game, when it no longer costs anything.
Peter Drucker told a story about Alfred P. Sloan Jr. of General Motors. At a meeting of a top committee, Sloan said: “Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here.” Everyone around the table nodded.
Sloan went on: “I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting, to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain understanding of what the decision is all about.”
Drucker stated the lesson as a rule: “one does not make decision unless there is disagreement.”
American schools grade it, from elementary through university, and it appears on the syllabus as a percentage. A student who has understood everything and said nothing receives a lower mark than one who spoke up and was partly wrong.
In Amazon’s 2016 letter to shareholders, Bezos described the practice directly: if you have conviction on a direction even though there is no consensus, say I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?
He added that he does it himself, all the time.
The phrase names the sequence exactly. The disagreement is voiced, and then the decision is executed as though it had not been.