Using nouns rather than verbs might take some of the sting out of a comment. Compare "You performed poorly" with "Your performance was poor."* How judgmental does each one sound? If you sense that the former places more emphasis and judgment on the individual, you're on the right track. One way to tilt toward observation over judgment is to opt for

Here is the key difference: Thinking, benefits from embracing variability. Doing benefits from reducing variability.

First, failure to treat completion as a deliberate step in the process translates into a failure to see the work in discrete elements; this failure carries risks. One risk is escalation of commitment because we see longer production runs, longer operational cycles linked to one original decision. This makes the organization less likely to change

I had a client that used the word "exposed" a lot and in a negative way. They wanted to make sure no one felt "exposed." This reluctant exposure is a symptom of low trust and vulnerability and high levels of judgment. They are doomed to mediocrity because they infantalized their employees and no one will risk a new idea. The key is to create a

The point is that we do not want a "harmonious conversation." What we want is an accurate picture of reality. Harmonious and wrong means out of business or dead people. Harmonious means thìrty-three dead on El Faro, seven dead on the space shuttle Challenger.

The fear is that dissent equals disharmony and is to be avoided.

But in organizations that

The next time you have a problem at your company, think about this: Is this simply a problem in execution, or was there a decision in the past, perhaps the distant past, that set us down the path where this operational problem was more likely to happen? Is the problem rooted in faulty bluework in the past?

Even more difficult to identify are

Encouraging people to speak up, or even "empowering" them with statements like "don't hesitate to change course" in an environment of top-down decision-making, simply does not work.

Leaders say these things to assuage their conscience. When things go wrong, they can blame others for not speaking up despite the leader's encouragement to do so. But

We don't use that word often in polite society, it's ugly. So we label it with other words like motivate, inspire, or collaborate. Often “collaborating" is really coercion in disguise. I've been guilty of this myself. You've probably done it, too.

Second, failure to complete also takes a toll on the humans in the organization. No completion moments mean no celebration moments. One hour merges with the next, one day into the other. Without completion, we do not feel a sense of progress for what we've accomplished or learned.