Having spent many years in corporate Canada, surrounded by very smart and analytical people, I've been exposed to numerous presentations of proposed solutions and new ideas.

Too often in those conference rooms, certain people—especially those who considered themselves clever—immediately focused on finding holes.

In honesty, at the beginning of my career, I was one of those people too.

Back then, we believed that pointing out flaws in an initiative, idea, or solution was a measure of our brilliance.

We took pride in seeing—and pointing out—the obvious things no one else would, perhaps subconsciously fishing for validation from our peers.

However, here was the problem with that approach: We weren't helping the business; we were hurting it.

Too many good ideas got thrown in the garbage because we didn't have the wisdom to look at the forest past the trees.

By focusing on being the star of the meeting, we forgot that ideas start imperfect and that no one has all the answers.

More importantly, we failed to realize that our job was to keep people motivated to solve problems, even if the solutions aren't presented with a bow on top.

I don't remember precisely when this shift occurred for me; it happened early in my career.

But I vividly recall noticing it in others (of course, lol 🤷‍♂️ ) and being frustrated by it (the audacity!).

It also took me a while to articulate what was happening.

I remember not being able to shake the sense that we were shutting down people who worked really hard and who were trying to do exactly what the business needed: make us better.

Because of this attitude, over time, we caused these people to raise their hands less and less.

And to me, this was a crime.

In fact, I began to realize that this was a key reason why so many projects were not getting through the finish line (not my projects, I was a bull 😜).

That's when it really hit me that there was nothing smart about taking pride in highlighting holes in proposals and walking away.

The smart approach would have been to demand excellence of research and delivery while also having the wisdom to see the diamonds in the rough.

This quote by Adam Grant does a good job of capturing the big lesson from this realization:

"The key is not to pick out what's wrong with an argument, but rather to listen for the nugget of truth, even if it's buried deep. You might be surprised what you find."

And here is an adapted version for my argument:

The key is not to pick out what's wrong with an argument, but rather to listen for its potential and help work through the obstacles. You might be surprised what you accomplish.

Less cleverness, more wisdom.