What happens when you gather a roomful of passionate, and sometimes highly caffeinated, overachieving Starbucks partners in a meeting? You get healthy dialogue.

Starbucks has a peaceful business veneer, but behind closed doors in any of its more than 100 conference rooms at its Seattle headquarters, you will witness heated and contested conversations.

Starbucks would rather have these difficult conversations take place in conference rooms than in hallways. That’s because Starbucks’ consensus-building, decision-making culture requires that all issues from all angles be discussed before a decision is reached. This cannot happen in a hallway conversation between only a few people.