Steelman Before You Defend
Use steelmanning to represent a stakeholder's objection in its strongest reasonable form before responding.
Steelmanning means improving the objection before answering it. Do not fight the weakest version A strawman answer takes an exaggerated or weak version of the pushback and defeats that. It may win the sentence and lose the stakeholder. A steelman answer asks what the concern would sound like if a smart, informed person were making it carefully. Make the concern more precise Replace broad labels with mechanism. "They will never adopt it" becomes "the workflow may add steps during quota pressure unless the payoff is immediate." "Legal will block it" becomes "the approval path may create accountability without control." Precision…
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