I wrote previously that it is important to discover the right thing to do, then do it.

However I did not give advice on how to get to the right thing, particularly in a group context.

This recently was thrown into sharp relief for me, where I wanted to bring a group of people along with me, but there were significant objections to my proposed course of action.

I perceived that the issues that the group were concerned about were founded in the immediate difficulties we were experiencing.

To try to focus past those obstacles, I asked the question - "if cost, amount of work, and availability of people to do the work was not an issue, would you lift your objections?"

Once people couched the issue in these terms, we were able to drive quickly to a decision. 

The previous arguments against the desired outcome then became obstacles to be overcome, instead of arguments against even trying to start.