Sometimes the strongest thing a leader says in a meeting is “good point, let’s do yours.”

Handing the decision to somebody else’s better idea costs a leader almost nothing and buys an unusual amount. It tells the group that the point of the discussion is to find the right answer rather than to confirm yours. Everybody in the room files that away. Once it has happened a couple of times, people start bringing their real ideas instead of their safe ones.

Go into your next group discussion looking for one idea better than your own, and name it out loud when you find it. Give the credit plainly, without adding that you were thinking the same thing.