Sublime

If you are not in a position of authority, then you can help protect troublemakers by making sure they are invited to meetings. And when they do say something that creates disequilibrium, you can choose to be curious: ask them to say more about their idea rather than allow everyone else in the room to ignore them.

“He who has learned to disagree without being disagreeable has discovered the most valuable secret of negotiation.”

The best way to solve a management problem, he believed, was through “creative confrontation”—by facing people “bluntly, directly, and unapologetically.”*

But when someone becomes irrational or personally abusive or inconsiderate, we intervene and, based on the situation, either invite the people to pause, think, and focus on the ideas and behavior rather than the people involved, or stop the conversation altogether.

individuals should never use force against other people and they should honor their commitments.

The less important he makes himself, the more important he probably is (and vice versa).

if you’re a manager, your first duty is to do no harm. A friend of mine, Kendall Wright, once told me that a manager’s job is to remove the obstacles that prevent people from making their maximum contribution. That’s as good a definition as I’ve ever heard.