Listen to this week’s column:
Dear Idea Guy,
Our leadership team is full of smart, experienced people—but every time we debate an idea or decision, it turns into a battle of opinions and power dynamics. Everyone wants to be right, the conversation stalls, and eventually a leader makes the call.
How do we move forward when no one wants to be wrong?
— Weary in Webster
Dear Weary,
What you’re describing isn’t a lack of intelligence. It’s a very common innovation trap: confusing being right with finding the right answer.
In many leadership teams, being right becomes a form of currency. Opinions are defended. Experience is leveraged. Status quietly enters the room. And before long, decisions aren’t shaped by evidence—they’re shaped by who speaks last, loudest, or with the most authority.
When that happens, debate turns into a contest. Progress slows. And eventually, a leader steps in to make the call—not because the team learned its way forward, but because time ran out.
Here’s the problem: being right ends the conversation. Finding the right answer requires keeping it open.
Innovation doesn’t advance through stronger opinions. It advances through learning. And learning requires a willingness to be wrong—out loud, early, and without penalty.
The most effective teams I work with make a clear shift. They stop asking, “Who’s right?” and start asking, “What would help us learn?” That one change reframes disagreement from a power struggle into a shared investigation.
Instead of debating solutions, they test assumptions. Instead of defending positions, they design small experiments. Instead of seeking certainty, they seek evidence.
This doesn’t weaken leadership. It strengthens it.
When leaders model curiosity over certainty, they give their teams permission to explore rather than posture. When they reward learning instead of correctness, progress speeds up. Decisions improve—not because everyone agrees, but because reality is allowed into the room.
If your meetings keep ending with a leader making the call, that’s a signal. Not of weak leadership, but of a system that hasn’t yet made space for experimentation.
So here’s a simple reframe to try with your team:
Don’t ask people to be right. Ask them to help you get it right.
Because innovation isn’t about winning the argument. It’s about discovering what actually works.
— Kevin Popovic, The Idea Guy®
WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM? is a weekly column by Kevin Popovic, The Idea Guy®—a trusted advisor to CEOs and leaders across industries. Each edition answers real-world business challenges with clear, creative insights you can use to think differently and lead confidently.
Kevin Popović is the trusted advisor behind What’s Your Problem?, the San Diego Business Journal’s weekly innovation advice column for business leaders. Known as The Idea Guy®, Popović helps CEOs and leadership teams solve complex challenges with clarity, creativity, and confidence.
A former Zahn Chair of Creativity & Innovation at San Diego State University and a TEDx speaker, Kevin has led award-winning agencies, launched innovation labs, and guided Fortune 500 companies, startups, and public institutions through high-impact change. As the founder of The Idea Guy®, he brings over 25 years of experience helping executives build cultures of innovation, improve strategic thinking, and generate results.
His work spans design thinking, creative strategy, and generative AI—equipping leaders to reframe problems and lead what’s next.
