He handled that gracefully, which shows very good people ("soft") skills. One "consultant" technique I use in such situations is to say the correct thing, but

He handled that gracefully, which shows very good people ("soft") skills. One "consultant" technique I use in such situations is to say the correct thing, but while giving "credit" to the person who was actually wrong: "I think $JOE is right about $TOPIC, and what he's saying is that <proceed to making the _correct_ case>". I find that many will be persuaded and are more willing to accept the correction in this form, as they're not being told that they're wrong. If they still don't agree, then I can ratchet up to more pointed criticism: "oh then I misunderstood you...but isn't there a problem then because...."; but, if you can keep bringing them in by validating at least some what of they thought, it helps.