Catching Intelligence [Part 4 of 5]

The Difference Between Being Right and Being Useful

Being right feels good.

Being useful changes everything.

Socrates was considered the wisest man in Athens not because he had the most answers, but because he asked the questions that revealed everyone else's ignorance—including his own.

In business, we've inverted this wisdom.

We reward people who eliminate questions, not those who surface the ones that matter most.

Here's what I've learned... teams need both kinds of intelligence. But we've built cultures that only reward one.

The "Right" People They have facts. They cite studies. They're rarely wrong about what they know.

But being right about the past doesn't help you navigate the future... (and the future is where all the value lives).

The "Useful" People They ask questions that matter. They spot patterns others miss. They're comfortable being wrong if it leads somewhere better.

They turn conversations toward what actually needs solving.

The magic happens when you combine them... right people provide the foundation... useful people provide the direction.

But here's the problem...

most teams optimize for being right. We reward people who never make mistakes over people who ask breakthrough questions.

So where do we go from there?

In Part 5: Building systems that reward truth over comfort.