Well, if you are criticizing a person, then the rest of the team may not need to hear it. For example, if the person consistently makes sloppy mistakes, that&#x27;s a conversatin that is better had in private. If you&#x27;re just saying there&#x27;s a typo on that slide, that&#x27;s a correction of somebody&#x27;s work not a critisim of somebody, and fine to do in public. If it&#x27;s a debate about an idea that obviously needs to be in public. But a debate is very different than criticism in my mind.<p>I agree it does seem ridiculous to say remember you are talking to a person :) But people forget all the time, and that is why they often say things in an overly harsh way.<p>If you are talking to a person, it must be personal, but it doesn&#x27;t have to personalize. If you say, I think that&#x27;s wrong, and that is something somebody has worked on for a long time, they will take it personally so it is personally. But you haven&#x27;t personalized--saying you&#x27;re wrong or you&#x27;re always wrong is personalizing unnecessarily.<p>If you want I&#x27;ll send you about 10 pages I&#x27;ve written on this stuff--would love your reaction, it&#x27;s very helpful!