Ask HN: How do you deal with verisimilitude at work?

I've been in several work environments where either people lack the humility or confidence in themselves to admit they don't know (and ask someone who does) or the political climate leads to sub-optimal decisions that have to be justified somehow. Generally, this makes me unhappy and tends to poison the workplace for me and I'm assuming others have a similar experience. Does anyone have any advice or techniques they've successfully used to change the nature of the conversation from posturing and chest pounding to fact based? Personally, asking probing questions that socratically teases out the gaps in understanding in a meeting where people are using bad information to make even worse decisions, has ended poorly for me.