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It Doesn't Have to Be Resolved on This Call

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It Doesn't Have to Be Resolved on This Call

2026-08-24 09:00 UTCBy AlphaScala Research DeskSource reporting: sixteenventures.comEditorial standards

It Doesn't Have to Be Resolved on This Call

Calling up requires knowing what the objection protects. Without that, it's guessing. The real cost of forcing a resolution in one call is a public position that makes the next conversation harder.

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I wrote recently about calling people up rather than calling them out, using a meeting where I got it wrong. Same observation either way, different structure: name the behavior, separate it from the person, point at the outcome they've already said they want.

That's correct and it's incomplete, and the missing part is the part you need.

Calling up isn't a tone. It's a move that requires material, and the material is knowing what the objection is actually protecting.

Without that, you're guessing. And a guess aimed at the wrong thing lands exactly like calling out, because you've just told somebody in confident language that you understand their motive and been wrong about it. That's worse than the blunt version. The blunt version is at least honest about being a challenge.

So the softer phrasing isn't a fallback you can reach for when you don't have the context. It doesn't work without it.

Which leaves a shorter list of options than people think.

Debating the merits is not on that list.

That's the part that will feel wrong, because debating the merits is what everybody does and it feels like the responsible thing. Somebody says the change is too hard. You have a response to that. The response is good. You say it. Now you're arguing about capacity, which was never the subject, and every minute you spend there makes it harder to get to what is.

"That's interesting, let's come back to it" is a complete move. Not a stall, not weakness. A complete move.

Here's where the failure actually comes from, and it isn't temperament.

It's the belief that the thing has to be settled before the hour ends. That belief is what makes you reach for a response you don't have the material for. It's why you argue the merits, why you push one more time, and why you say the sharp version in front of people you shouldn't have said it in front of.

Look at what's actually on the line if you leave it open. You have another conversation. That's it. That's the entire cost.

Whereas the cost of forcing it is that somebody gets fused to a position in public, and now they have to defend it, and the next conversation is harder than the one you just had.

Since the whole thing depends on knowing what's being defended, the useful question is how you find out.

The cleanest signal is a contradiction, and it's audible in real time. When somebody's objection works against an outcome they have themselves said they want, the objection isn't the real thing.

They told you it was a priority. They're now defending a position that leaves it unfixed. Both can't be true. That's not a subtle read, it's arithmetic, and you can hear it happen.

What it tells you is narrow but it's the thing you need: you have stopped talking about the topic and started talking about something else. It doesn't tell you what the something else is. For that you have to ask, and asking usually can't happen in the room where you noticed.

Which is another reason the second option on the list is real. Say nothing now, find out later, come back with the material.

When you call somebody out in front of their own people, the damage doesn't land where you'd expect. It doesn't primarily land on them. It lands on their team's confidence in them.

You can degrade somebody's standing with their own reports while sincerely believing you were solving a process problem. That's worth being blunt about because of what happens next, which is nothing. They will not tell you that you did it. You'll find out indirectly, months later, or you won't find out.

The reason it's worth writing down is that knowing it doesn't protect you.

I know all of this. I've known it for years. I did it wrong anyway, recently, because I was distracted and the moment came and calling somebody out is the path of least resistance. It's faster. It feels like candor. It's the default, and defaults are what you get when you stop paying attention.

Slipping is normal. Noticing you slipped is the whole skill, and noticing takes about a minute if you're looking and doesn't happen at all if you aren't.