"Because the CTO had a yearly turnover of his direct reports, every status call about the project took some variation of “great idea, boss” even though literally no one involved thought it was even a good idea."
IMO it is still ones job to voice the concern, even if it gets you in trouble. At least if you want subsequent complaints to be taken seriously.
Personally, if I get in a situation where even voicing issues gets me in shit, that's a red flag to go find another employer.
In principle you are correct. In reality there is probably a lot more to this story, especially if someone is not in a position to easily change jobs.
Dysfunction presents you with a choice - do the job you were hired to do and make the project succeed or do the job you were hired to do and voice your concerns. You cannot do both, not in a dysfunctional environment. The result is predictable in both cases and telling people that it is morally virtuous to always do the latter is naive. Sometimes humans just want to do a good job and see something succeed despite the circumstances.
Yes, we would ALL be better off if people ALWAYS voiced their concerns and let the chips fall where they may. But in reality the CTO is the CTO because he was probably good at blaming other people for his problems and stealing credit to make himself look good.
Life is short, and people have bills to pay. I feel like anyone who has had to learn how to be successful in the presence of an inflexible person will have an intuitive sense of what I am saying here.
IMO it is still ones job to voice the concern, even if it gets you in trouble. At least if you want subsequent complaints to be taken seriously.
Personally, if I get in a situation where even voicing issues gets me in shit, that's a red flag to go find another employer.