Perspective Taking: Key to Innovation, Better Decisions and Team Success

Nearly 1 in 3 tech professionals believe their idea is the best one on the team. This is a staggering finding, one which is deeply counterproductive in today’s complex and unpredictable reality.

According to the latest Skiilify–Insight Jam report, 84% of professionals say perspective-taking is important, yet a surprising 29% still believe their perspective holds more weight than others, even on teams designed to be diverse. One would hope that it reflects the intelligence of the team members.  But unfortunately, it usually reflects weaker communication, collaboration, and interest in ideas that could sharpen one’s own.

When one voice consistently overpowers others, teams lose their ability to adapt. Contributions are withheld. Creative momentum slows. Over time, this environment discourages people from sharing ideas at all, even when they could have been valuable.

How This Pattern Develops

In many organizations, decisiveness is celebrated. Individuals who speak with confidence and act quickly are often rewarded. While clarity and ownership are vital, they can overshadow an equally important skill: learning how to pause, reflect, and incorporate input from others.

Confidence without openness becomes brittle. It can’t flex under pressure. The more strongly people identify with their ideas, the harder it becomes to question them, especially in the presence of a challenge or an alternative perspective.

The report shows this pattern forming even among senior leaders, which suggests that this isn’t a byproduct of inexperience. Over time, people may come to associate success with their ability to be “right.” That pattern, though reinforced by promotions or praise, doesn’t leave much room for collaboration and learning from others’ perspectives.

The Subtle Toll on Team Dynamics

When group members believe their thinking is superior, team discussions stop feeling like co-creation. They become competitive. Individuals try to win the meeting rather than move the project forward.

The effects often go unnoticed at first. Innovation still happens, but it comes slower. New team members hesitate to challenge the dominant voices. Teams become predictable in ways that aren’t helpful. They fall into patterns of confirming each other rather than examining what’s possible. Without perspective-taking, even the best ideas may never reach their potential. They remain fixed in one person’s worldview, untested by other use cases or unseen complications.

A Skill That Rewires Communication

There’s a simple exercise that can start to build stronger habits. When someone disagrees with your idea, take a moment to restate their point in your own words. Ask if you’ve understood it correctly. Avoid debating or correcting. The goal isn’t to win. It’s to understand.

This process does more than clarify information. It changes the emotional tone of a conversation. People feel safer contributing when they know their views won’t be brushed aside or misunderstood. They become more engaged. And paradoxically, you may find that your own ideas become stronger the more you stretch to understand someone else’s.

Perspective-Taking for Leaders

For leaders, the ability to model this kind of exchange has a measurable impact. Teams take their cues from those in charge. If the manager listens with care and reflects others’ viewpoints, the group follows that pattern. If the manager shuts down ideas, even unintentionally, the team becomes more cautious and less creative.

Setting expectations around how people engage with disagreement helps reinforce a healthy team culture. That might mean building in time for differing perspectives to be explored or asking follow-up questions before decisions are finalized.

The result is better meetings. People leave with clarity, trust, and a stronger shared sense of ownership.

Misunderstandings Masquerading as Agreement

Teams often fall into the trap of premature agreement. People nod, stay quiet, and let things move forward, even when they have reservations. It may look like consensus, but it’s more like avoidance. 

This is a risk in any setting where deadlines are tight and stakes are high. Without space for people to clarify and question, poor assumptions get baked into plans. The consequences may surface much later, after rework, delays, or failed launches.  Clarity doesn’t require everyone to agree. It requires everyone to feel confident that their views are considered before a direction was chosen.

A Crucial Skill for the Future of Tech

The Skiilify–Insight Jam study makes it clear: perspective-taking is valued across the board. But in practice, it’s far less common than it needs to be. That gap is costing teams the very outcomes they’re working toward: more agility, better collaboration, faster learning.

As AI continues to shift roles and reshape industries, the ability to step into another person’s shoes will matter even more. Successful professionals will need to navigate cross-functional projects, global partnerships, and new kinds of user feedback. None of that happens well in an echo chamber.

What You Can Do Today

Try changing one small moment. In your next conversation, especially one that involves disagreement, listen fully. Don’t interrupt. Then try to reflect back what you heard and confirm that it was accurate. That five-second shift can make an immediate difference in how the rest of the exchange unfolds. 

Technical expertise will always be important. But without the skill to work with others who see things differently, even the most impressive individual contributions won’t carry far.

Skiilify is dedicated to helping individuals build critical soft skills, like perspective-taking.  Contact us to learn more.