Reading the room means observing evidence, not inventing motives.
The danger is turning social awareness into amateur psychology. "She is threatened" is a story. "She asked the ownership question three times and stopped contributing after finance entered" is evidence.
Keep observations separate from interpretations. Then test the interpretation with a clean question. The point is not to be clever about people. It is to reduce the chance that you act on a private fiction.
Operator artifact: use three columns after a meeting: what I saw, what I infer, what I need to ask. Do not let an inference become a decision until it has been tested.
Field test: Replace one assumed motive with a direct, low-drama question.
This is part 2 of 10 in Social Awareness for Operators.
