If you are in a meeting where "thought leaders" are debating idea vs idea – STOP. Don't engage. You will be pulled in, some words or false statements will be ve

If you are in a meeting where "thought leaders" are debating idea vs idea – STOP. Don't engage. You will be pulled in, some words or false statements will be very tempting to prove or disprove. Sometimes you may even be asked to take a decision or commitment on the spot to just an "idea". STOP right there and don't fall into their trap. They just want their "idea" to win, and then they'll disappear in the execution, leaving you holding the bag. Worse still, in case the idea was flawed, they'll refuse to admit. They'll come back and reinforce the idea, not allowing you to pivot or learn from mistakes. That's the nature of thought leadership – the "thought" matters more than everything else. All ideas are open and welcome, but you don't take commitments based on just ideas. Ask them to show a spec or concrete doc, and start discussing spec vs spec, detail vs detail, plan vs plan, data vs data or anything concrete. You'll find many of these thought leaders silently disappear into the background then. They will come back and try to abstract-ify the discussion again before decisions are taken. That's why you set ground rules before the meeting begins, and not when it's happening. Thought leaders are all nice and fancy, until rubber hits the ground. 100% agree with just this title alone: Don't feed them.