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DISAGREEING-PRODUCTIVELY5 MIN READ

Steelman Without Surrendering

Use steelmanning to improve disagreement quality without giving up your position.

A disagreement gets better when the reasoning becomes visible. A steelman is not agreement. It is quality control. If Jae attacks the weakest version of Operations' view, Operations spends the meeting correcting him. If he states the strongest version, the real tradeoff appears faster. Step down the ladder Name the observable data first. Then name what you are making of it. When you label an inference as an inference, you invite correction without surrendering your judgment. Steelman the other side Before you rebut, state the concern the other side is protecting. The goal is not to sound nice; it is…

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