Surround yourself with truth-seekers who reward honesty over ego

A CEO was sure she made the right call firing her sales VP—until revenues cratered and competitors ate her market share. In a panic, she blamed the market, then second-guessed herself, then tried overcorrecting. It went from bad to worse. When she joined a decision pod that prized accuracy over ego, she got an epiphany. Every meeting began with a simple rule: “Don’t praise results—grade the process.” They held her accountable by rewarding honest questions and detailed critiques instead of applause for big wins. Slowly, meetings went from pep rallies into surgical labs, dissecting every choice and data point. In six months she stopped chasing shiny outcomes and started executing ruthless decision hygiene—and revenues rebounded.

Her story isn’t unique. Whether in finance, tech, or the nonprofit world, the smartest teams aren’t staffed with cheerleaders. They’re built on CUDOS—communal data, universalist standards, disinterested reviewers, and organized skepticism. That means treating dissent as a gift, not a threat.

When your team commits to wrestling with every assumption, celebrating uncomfortable feedback, and requiring full data sharing, you flip the script. You stop falling for motivated reasoning and start seeing reality. That lifts every decision to a higher bar.

Gather your squad and lay out the ground rules: no hiding data, no shooting the messenger, no casual agreement for its own sake. Every lost deal, every missed deadline is an opportunity—so bring it to the table for open dissection. Keep your next meeting’s timer set: thirty minutes of analysis, ten minutes for solutions. Notice how discomfort turns into breakthroughs when everyone knows they’ll be praised for honesty, not just results. Try it at your next debrief—watch your team’s blind spots peel away.