Every Organization Has an Antagonist
Organizational psychology meets executive strategy
Photo by Danist Soh on Unsplash
History does not favor calm consensus. It turns on tension, fracture, and fight. In a small German town, the Dassler brothers’ famous feud led to the creation of two rival brands—Puma and Adidas—dividing a workforce, a river, and even the way neighbors crossed the street. When Coke was caught off guard by the infamous “Pepsi Challenge,” it forced a reckoning with the story it had told itself for so long, that people prefer what they know rather than what they like. A young American nation nearly split in two because one half’s identity was at war with the other half’s ideology. The costs are still being paid today. In 1054, a mutual excommunication hardened theological tension into a permanent scar, splitting Christianity into East and West and shaping nations, liturgies, and loyalties for a thousand years.
Conflict is not a footnote to history; it is the engine. When pressure meets conviction, something breaks. And what emerges on the other side is never neutral.
Scratch the surface of any boardroom, conference room, or Zoom room, and the same forces are at work—conflict, contradiction, and contrarian thinking—shaping decisions and outcomes. For executives and teams who know how to harness the power of the Antagonist, the future is theirs for the taking. For most, the Antagonist remains in the shadows: too risky to name, too disruptive to confront, too costly to activate.
The fastest way to align a group is to show them what must be overcome.
Organizations do not mobilize around abstract ideas. They might organize around mission statements, operating plans, and goals, but those are incomplete. If you want momentum, unity, and urgency, something must be overcome. A clearly named Antagonist reveals the common enemy for the common good.
Antagonist at Work is written for leaders who want to understand what they are up against, what they are fighting, and what is worth fighting for.
This is not about villainizing competitors, though competition matters. It is about the forces within and without that resist progress: habits, incentives, systems, stories, complacency, and contradictions that slow momentum.
The Antagonist is an organizing force. When named clearly, it sharpens strategy, clarifies identity, and rallies teams toward action. When left unnamed, it shapes culture anyway through drift, stagnation, and decay.
This content examines culture, schisms, struggles, and corporate conundrums—past and present—with an eye toward what leaders can learn from them. Antagonist at Work explores how systems form, how strategies harden, how incentives distort, and how institutions fall back to familiar set points.
Leadership is not the elimination of antagonists. It is the discipline of naming them, aiming them, and preventing them from turning into scapegoats.
The Antagonist at Work is rarely a person and almost always a force. At first glance, it may look appealing because who doesn’t appreciate stability, tradition, alignment, loyalty, and growth? But look closer and it may be quietly restraining the very progress you seek.
You can try to avoid it, bury it, or plan around it. But those efforts are futile. For those with the courage to face the opposition, the Antagonist becomes the driver of clarity, courage, and progress. Ignore it, and it will shape you anyway. Just without your consent.
The Antagonist is already at work. Are you?
Antagonist Check
What force inside your organization currently absorbs the most energy—but is rarely named?
Where does consensus feel earned, and where does it feel manufactured?
If this Antagonist were made explicit, what decision would immediately become unavoidable?
Does this content resonate?
Hi, I’m Brad. If the challenges I write about sound familiar, it’s because I spend my time helping executives and their teams work through them. Over the past 30 years, I’ve been a founder, principal, CEO, chief of staff, and board chair. If you’re interested in a conversation about working together, I accept a limited number of new engagements each year. You can send me a message here.