Don't feel picked on, M-A! Opposition is normal and healthy;
As a (hopefully welcome) tangent to this discussion, I am currently reading "Dynamics of Software Development" by Jim McCarty. He has an interesting section on exactly this. I will quote it verbatim (typing it in, so forgive typos). I present it without comment other than: It appears we are a healthy team! Mark. The Problem of Creativity: Creativity in a group is always limited by the groups defensiveness, and some amount of defensiveness is healthy. In the healthy team, then, no matter how highly valued creativity is ostensibly, change beyond a certain normative quantity or degree will be resisted. And even change within bounds will be accepted only insofar as it can seem to fall under the rubric of "improvement". Change must seem to build on the previously known and accepted reality. Even if there are only two steps involved in a change, with the second building on the first, in a single reality cycle - single product development cycle for us - the change is likely to be rejected by the healthy team. What you need for truly creative change, then, is an environment that transcends good health, an environment that not only accepts a continuum of change, which is normal, but one that positively engenders, nurtures and propels forward wholly new dynamics. The transcendent organization values radical or revolutionary change and esteems utterly new modes of thought. It's possible for a team to be healthy and not particularly creative, but this state of affairs is not especially desirable. What is desirable is team fecundity [MH - had to look this up - "intellectually productive or inventive to a marked degree" - synonym of fertile], the radiating of the new and the original from the normal and the healthy. This kind of creativity requires a flexibility and a courage beyond the reach of most of us most of the time It's ironic and worth remembering that the healthier the team the more effective the resistance to revolutionary thought will be. This is a natural consequence of the teams overall effectiveness on every relevant domain. -- end of quote--