Often people don’t speak up because they’re afraid of going on the record as wrong, uninformed, or the proponent of a dumb idea. A great way to sidestep this inherent fear is to depersonalize your idea, putting a question to the group. When you think you might have a good idea but aren’t overly confident about it, go ahead and lob in an offhanded caveat, such as: “Have we thought about . . . getting Steve involved in the PR campaign directly?” “Did anyone mention . . . the Brealy report? I seem to recall it covered some of the same topics Andrew has raised here.” “Another option we may want to
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