Say “thanks” to criticism first. Decide later whether it was right.

Thanking someone is not the same as agreeing with them. Criticism arrives with a jolt, and that jolt makes you sort it into true or false before you have actually heard it. A quick thank you buys a gap in which the information can stay available instead of being argued away in the first ten seconds.

Try it once this week with whoever is hardest to hear from. Say thanks, ask one clarifying question, and go away to think. You can always decide tomorrow that they were wrong, and you will have lost nothing by being gracious first.