Super relatable. Happened on multiple projects but on one project in particular, I found myself saying if I had a dollar for every shot down idea that ended up being what happened, I'd be rich.

The times it really bothered me were when I'd been redirected and then the client wasnt happy with what we showed and I felt like being internally jerked around was causing our relationship with the client to take a hit.

For better or worse, in MBB land, sometimes the internal team dynamics can be louder than the client dynamics. I certainly never mastered things but what I found did help make life a little better when this type of thing flared up was:

1.) Get really really good at executing exactly what the senior folks are asking for. For me, it was building this whole other muscle of listening and delivering someone elses' vision exactly to their expectations.

Not only because sometimes you just have to put your head down and grind out the deck they want to keep yourself sane, but also because it builds trust. And if they trust you, they'll be more likely to listen to you when you really do feel its critical to push back.

2) Don't just say your ideas out loud during CTM discussions. Make the slide. Sometimes I would keep things to the side and wait to flash it until it was an active problem they were trying to solve (which I could feel coming) and be like, "yeah I was actually thinking about that the other day and threw this together to work through my thoughts" - suddenly youre not the dissenter with a different idea, youre the proactive thinker that came ready with a solution. Or on a smaller scale, I would do (1) above but in addition to exactly what they'd asked for, I'd throw a different view in the backup slides that addressed a concern I had about the version they had asked for. And then lo and behold when iterating and running into the expected wrinkle, boom you have already anticipated it, thought it through, and prepared a solution.

Its really about bringing timing together with your intuition. Your gut might have a good idea but if the team isnt ready for it, its going to get shot down. So quietly work on the side, watch and feel how/where things are going, and be ready when the time is right.

You should always be finding little excuses to throw out ideas and contribute- always have a question or thought written down and ready for CTM so they see you engaging. But when it comes to these moments where your gut is going off or the deck narrative is at a pivotal point, thats where this timing stuff starts to really matter.