Love that one... and I've found a lot of success with it as well.  (Although I've never used the term curmudgeon around the activity, I just might start!) I'm a strong believer in setting clear expectations, having overt conversations about the value of/need for conflict, and showing people how to do it by regularly modeling effective conflict behaviors. It doesn't take long before others will begin to give it a try.  Thanks, Stosh, for your thoughts.