Devil's Advocate
Before we lock this in — who'll argue the other side?
Before the group commits, assign one person to argue the strongest possible case against the current plan. Give them 3 minutes. The rule: no one is allowed to rebut until they've finished. Write down the two strongest objections they raised.
A team is converging on a decision quickly and no one has voiced disagreement.
The group has already done structured dissent, or the decision is trivial and consensus is genuine.
Why it works
Groups naturally suppress dissent because disagreement feels socially expensive. Assigning the role makes it safe — the person isn't being negative, they're doing their job.
Consensus feels good but it’s often a sign that the group stopped thinking, not that everyone independently arrived at the same answer. The pressure to agree is invisible and powerful — people read the room, sense the direction, and fall in line. Assigning a devil’s advocate breaks the pattern by making dissent an obligation rather than an act of rebellion. The ‘no rebuttal’ rule is critical: if the group can immediately argue back, the advocate learns to soften their objections. Three uninterrupted minutes of genuine opposition is worth more than an hour of comfortable agreement.