Yeah, this is where empathy comes in. You need to read the person/people. I should have been more clear, its more of a template, than a stock answer. Having a

Yeah, this is where empathy comes in. You need to read the person/people. I should have been more clear, its more of a template, than a stock answer. Having a cache of information is not the same as "not listening". You still need to listen and respond to the subject at hand. For example, you are having a meeting about door handles. You know there is a problem about the placing, but also one person is keen on changing the material because they like brass more. However brass is more expensive, so the team needs to agree a threshold at which it becomes practical to change to brass. Now, if you had fresh in your cache a list of reasons why brass might be useful, and why its not, you can be prepared to counter or boost "that one brass Guy"'s point of view. You don't go in and say "brass is shit yo" the subject might not come up.