How to respond to criticism

How you respond to criticism is vital. Try to avoid getting into an argument. Instead, lead the exchange into a discussion on how to solve the issue. You'll waste less time guessing how to fix things. "So, you'd like to change the design - what would you say is the main thing...

Keep your criticism to your observations, and the impact they have. Don't try to fix the problem, just identify it.

Offer to help fix the problem, and to support the solution that the other person comes up with. Unless you know how to do the work your coworker is doing, do...

When you respond to the use of false premises, you should generally call them out as false, explain why they're false, and how them being false invalidates the argument.

• False premises can be implicit rather than explicit.
• It can also be helpful to ask the p...