The Debate Maker: Where Opinion Evolves Into Optimal Solutions

In Unleashing the Irreplaceable: How Multipliers Elevate Teams, I introduced the five Multiplier behaviors: the Talent Magnet, the Liberator, the Challenger, the Debate Maker, and the Investor.

Most people think debate is about argument or persuasion…about winning.

In the 120VC framework, the debate maker behavior isn’t about winning; it’s about creating clarity, alignment, and commitment after demand has been proven.

The Debate Maker’s job is to turn tension into alignment, and alignment into action.

The False Debate Maker

People are taught that debates have winners and losers. When you invite people to a “debate,” you’re inviting them to prove their intellectual superiority; to defend, persuade, and compete. That’s not collaboration; it’s a contest. And contests don’t create alignment, they create sides.

This turns meetings into turf wars where ego and persuasion win instead of facts and alignment.

The “false debate maker” creates sides, posturing, and confusion about ownership.

The Real Debate Maker

The purpose of the Real Debate Maker is to leverage the collective IQ of the team to surface the best possible solution, not the easiest or fastest solution, but the one that will serve the situation best in both the short and long term.

Collaboration doesn’t start with a question. It starts when demand for the “what” and “why” are proven, through the presentation of a 1-3-1, a one-page proposal that defines a problem, explores three solutions, and recommends one, or a C|O (Challenge | Opportunity), a structured exercise that aligns stakeholders on the change in outcomes and why it matters now. Once demand is proven, the discussion shifts from the “what” and “why” to the “how.”

The leader moderates the conversation, not to control it, but to facilitate curiosity and alignment. The goal is to help the team architect an optimal roadmap to a shared goal, ensuring everyone understands how the approach will measurably improve customer satisfaction, team member satisfaction, and profitability (the 3-pillars), none at the expense of the others.

This approach eliminates the conflict inherent to debate, while still pushing the team to surface the most optimal outcome. It’s structured curiosity that uses active listening as the primary tool.

The Five Steps of Active Listening

1. Questioning: Ask open-ended questions with genuine curiosity. Engage the subject matter experts about how they will complete the work. Seek to understand, not to judge.

2. Reflecting: Play back what you heard in your own words to confirm understanding and show the speaker you’re tracking.

3. Empathizing: When something doesn’t make sense, admit it and ask them to help you see how it works. This humility earns you permission to challenge without triggering defensiveness.

4. Clarifying: Once empathy has earned trust, ask powerful, challenging questions. The goal is not to catch errors but to develop a conceptual understanding of how the work will get done. You don’t have to know how to do it, only what needs to be done and how long it will take. The second you understand why it will take that long; you have it. When the work and the duration click, you’re capable of leading that work.

5. Summarizing: End by summarizing what was discussed, what you understood, and what was agreed upon. This reinforces clarity and alignment before the work begins.

From Collaboration to Alignment

The Debate Maker leads the team to architect its own roadmap to a shared goal. When alignment is achieved, execution becomes simple, everyone understands the “what,” the “why,” and the “how.”

There’s an important difference between agreement and commitment. Agreement comes from the head, it’s intellectual and based on understanding. Commitment comes from the heart, it’s emotional and based on belief and ownership. Either ensures alignment and a way forward, but agreement is preferred because it represents shared understanding as well as shared ownership.

When agreement isn’t possible, the Debate Maker asks for commitment, one baby step forward to gather data. Acknowledge dissenters and honor their perspective. Make it clear that assumptions will be tested through action, not argument.

Progress beats paralysis. Stalling is the only guaranteed way to fail.

The Debate Maker’s promise is simple: we will succeed together, or fail and learn together, but we will always move forward as one team. This promise matters in every situation, and it matters most when asking for commitment in the absence of agreement.

The Payoff

Debate Makers create psychological safety through curiosity and facilitation, not consensus or competition.

Tension becomes productive when it’s guided by structure and curiosity instead of ego and persuasion.

Through the five steps of active listening, leaders transform complexity into clarity, and clarity into aligned action.

When teams align around a clear “what,” “why,” and “how,” they execute with confidence and speed, not because they’re being pushed, but because they’re invested.

The Debate Maker protects team member capacity by ensuring discussion leads to decisions, not drift.

Alignment replaces approval. Action replaces debate.

Your Next Move

Stop inviting debate, it’s a competition to win. Start facilitating understanding and alignment.

After your next 1-3-1 or C|O, instead of asking for opinions, or ideas, or advice which often encourages people to compete to have their idea accepted. Ask the subject matters experts, the people that will do the work, how they will go about it and practice the five steps of active listening.

Focus on developing a conceptual understanding of the work, what needs to be done and why it will take the time it will take.

When alignment stalls, ask for commitment to a baby step forward. Then inspect, learn, and adjust as a team.

Progress is the antidote to paralysis.

Series Note

This article is part of our Multipliers series. In the anchor, Unleashing the Irreplaceable: How Multipliers Elevate Teams, we introduced the Multiplier foundation — autonomy, collaboration, and empowerment — and the five behaviors that bring it to life: the Talent Magnet, the Liberator, the Challenger, the Debate Maker, and the Investor.

This follow-on delivers the Debate Maker — not a facilitator of arguments, but a leader who turns tension into alignment and alignment into action. Upcoming articles will continue to break down each Multiplier behavior into actionable systems leaders can use to elevate their teams.