While building an intimate friendship in the workplace and spreading the spirit of the team are fantastic, when the last time a colleague was - he may have been drinking a lot of alcohol - he said something very ridiculous like putting forth a political idea claiming that George Bush was behind 9/11.

Or that Barack Obama is a Muslim from Kenya, or that your president expressed denial of science under the pretext that the Earth is flat, or that Apollo's landing on the moon was false ?!

Hearing your boss or co-worker denying business is as troubling as the conspiracy theory, such as the evidence that a product is not popular or that a decision is completely wrong.

What would you do if the person you worked with - even the chief executive - said something wrong?

"Dealing with denial of the truth - in business, politics and other areas of life - is one of my research fields, and I recently published a book on this subject," says Gleb Tsipursky.

Here are some tips for bypassing the Christmas ceremony at the office or avoiding direct confrontation with the boss or the manager.
It starts from the top.

The worst scenario is when the CEO is the person who denies the truth.

A four-year study was conducted by LeadershipIQ.com, a website offering online leadership seminars.

In which 1,087 board members from 286 organizations of all types who had forced their chief executives to attend interviews were interviewed and found that nearly a quarter of the executives - 23 percent - were fired because of their denial of reality, the organization.

Other research strongly suggests that the behaviors expressed by executives "are felt across the organization by influencing standards that impose sanctions or discourage member behavior, decision-making, behavior patterns and interaction among members."

Together, these results suggest that organizations where executives deny negative facts will have a culture of denial of reality in the hierarchy.

Of course, even when the manager lives in the real world, perhaps others in the organization may have mistaken beliefs.

Professionals at all levels can suffer from a tendency to deny facts and this is inconvenient in business settings.

Scientists describe this error in thinking - the influence of ostrich - and so called the ratio to the mythical idea that assumes that ostriches clenched their heads in the sand when you feel the danger.

Forget facts and logic

It is obvious that colleagues who suffer from the "ostrich effect" face the facts, but research says - and the common sense in the case of your colleague being your own supervisor - that this is a wrong behavior you accept to do.

The reason is that when someone thinks of an idea we know is wrong, this belief may be behind emotional barriers and there are a number of factors that explain why this happened.

For example, research on bias shows that we tend to search for information and interpret it in ways that are consistent with our beliefs. So, even if the sales are far below expectations, the CEO may reject this information when setting good financial expectations because he believes that his actions should lead the company to the best.

In another example of a company I consulted, the company manager refused to acknowledge that the person she appointed directly was inappropriate, although everyone else in the department said that the employee was hampering the team. The behavior of the director may be the result of what scientists call the gross cost overruns, a tendency to double previous decisions even when an objective assessment shows that the decision is causing some problems.

In either case, meeting the facts with the CEO or the manager will feel bad. We often prefer to place our heads in the sand instead of recognizing our mistakes because of our reluctance to experience negative emotions.

The search for a phenomenon called backfire effect shows that we tend to drill into the ground using the heel of the foot when we are presented with facts that make us feel bad about our identity, our own values, our vision or our collective affiliations.

In some cases, presenting facts actually stimulates enthusiasm, prompting people to develop a stronger link with incorrect beliefs. Moreover, we express our anger at the person who brings us the message, a phenomenon the researchers call "shoot the messenger."

In addition, there are many other mental errors that prevent business people from seeing reality clearly and making good decisions.
Modeling emotions and values

This does not mean that emotions are the problem. They are not. Emotions are primarily important for human experience, and we need both mind and passion to make good decisions.

So instead of presenting the facts, your goal should be to show emotional leadership and try to figure out what emotional barriers are discouraging your colleague from seeing the reality clearly.

To do this, use curiosity and careful questioning to see their values ​​and goals and how to shape them for their perception of self-identity with a focus on spreading emotional intelligence to empathy.

Unfortunately, despite extensive research into the importance of emotional intelligence in professional settings, many organizations still fail to provide such training.
Building confidence
After understanding the goals and values ​​of your colleague, try to show your interest in them.

Research shows that doing so is critical to effective knowledge transfer in professional environments.

The practice of mirroring or rephrasing the points made by the other person using your own words indicates that you understand how it feels to help build trust.

With the CEO, you may talk about how you both share the desire to be a leading and truly powerful executive. Try to associate the qualities and emotions identified by the CEO with specific examples of his behavior.

As for the manager with the questionable employee, I had a conversation with the manager about her vision of her prospective and prospective employees playing a role in the long-term future of her management.

She expressed her concern about the company's financial performance and concerns about obtaining funding for future employees, giving me an additional idea why it might protect the inefficient employee.

Abolition of emotional barriers
After you put yourself on the same side with the other person, build trust and establish an emotional relationship, comes the role of transition to the problem: emotional barriers.

The key is to show them, without provoking a defensive or aggressive response, to show them how the denial of the present truth undermines their long-term goals.

An example of a prominent businessman can be cited before the hard facts go forward, such as how Alan Mulally, the former CEO of Ford, helped save the company by making many corrections.

Research shows that providing positive reinforcement without a concession can be effective with colleagues and leaders alike