starting with my personal favourite “are we thinking outside the box though?” this one works for everything someone asked you for an opinion on an idea but you weren’t listening? legal trying to water down an idea with compliance? okay? it’s an all rounder 🤝 coming in at number two “but will it scale?” now I have no idea what this actually means in theory but it usually buys me a few seconds in a meeting when I have completely checked out 😴 this also works when the team are around ideas for a project that at some point will land on your desk last but not least “I really think we should take this offline and follow up separately” I reserve this bad boy exclusively for times where I don’t know what’s going on but I don’t wanna look stupid this statement invites zero follow up questions