The Benefits of Being Wrong

Peter Aten
3 min readSep 13, 2022

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Why I‘ve decided that my team is performing better every time that I lose a debate

In a recent interview a candidate asked me what I liked most about my job. My answer was “because I’m wrong a lot”.

I manage a number of software development teams working toward a common goal. Lots of design decisions need to be made within and between teams. When the decision is meaningful, and the answer not obvious, debate ensues. Like you, I’m confident that I’m not a stupid person but with these teams I find that I’m ‘wrong’ in these design discussions more than I have been in the past. Here’s why I’ve concluded that is a positive thing.

It means that I work with smart people

I’m happier when I work with smart people. I’d much rather be proven wrong than be exasperated about being surrounded by people that “don’t get it” or “can’t keep up”. Thinking that I’m the smartest person in the room might boost my ego in the moment, but it’s neither as fun nor as effective.

It means that we work on an interesting, complex domain

People don’t (or shouldn’t) debate over things that are obvious. I like challenges where the solution is elusive and is worthy of debate, especially when I’m surrounded by smart people.

It demonstrates psychological safety, which is essential to a high-performing team

The fact that people are willing to tell me and others that we’re wrong means that they feel safe in doing so. Likewise, people feel safe in being wrong rather than getting defensive. The lack of ego attached to either really supports constructive conversation and debate, and embodies the approach we espouse of “strong beliefs, weakly held”.

When I’m wrong, it usually means that we made a better decision than if it was just up to me

That’s the bottom line. All that matters is that the team made the best possible decision, and I’m happy to sacrifice my ego to that cause. On these teams, everyone lines up behind that goal, and it’s one of the things that makes me excited to play a leadership role on this initiative.

Summary

What makes this experience different than prior teams that I’ve managed or been a part of? I’ve certainly worked with smart people before, and on interesting problems. No, I think it is the willingness of the entire group to embrace humility and consider that there might be a better solution, to put their ego second and value team success ahead of individual ‘wins’, and to hold each other accountable for putting the teams’ interests ahead of personal feelings.

That’s a lot of individual sacrifice for the team good, but members of the team have universally indicated that it has been a very positive experience for them. I can’t tell you what the ‘secret sauce’ is for getting a team to adopt this attitude, but I do believe that leadership needs to at least create an environment of psychological safety to give it the potential to take hold.

So the next time that you’re “wrong”, cheers! I hope that means you’re challenged by and benefiting from being part of a high-functioning team.

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Peter Aten

Interested in making great software, and particularly in how to make teams more effective