Critical thinking is not a personality trait. It is a muscle, and like any muscle it atrophies without use. The senior engineer who has not had a difficult conversation in three months has not been on sabbatical from criticism. They have been getting weaker.
Reading things you disagree with, on purpose, is the equivalent of going to the gym. The discomfort is the workout.
Schedule the disagreement. Without it the muscle softens and the team’s collective judgement softens with it.
