As for our agreements with each other, the most important one was our need to do three things: 1. Put our honest thoughts out on the table, 2. Have thoughtful disagreements in which people are willing to shift their opinions as they learn, and 3. Have agreed-upon ways of deciding (e.g., voting, having clear authorities) if disagreements remain so t

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“But who makes the tough decisions?” Implicit in his question was a widely held mental model of tough decisions: because they involve allocating painful effects (often including layoffs, pay cuts, and demotions), a team is incapable of understanding them, let alone making them. I hold a different mental model: that because these decisions are so cr

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