Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Sticking to the facts

For the past couple of months I've been struggling with a project. I was editing something and the content and structure of the document were not compatible with what it was supposed to be. 

The problem was, I started out from the viewpoint that the writer was right (because he's very experienced) and since I was the newbie on the block, I was the one who was making some kind of mistake. I felt like I was in that nightmare class where my lecturer tell the class 2 + 2 = 6 and all the students in class agree with him. And instead of challenging the lecturer's premise, I battled with my math problem trying to find out why my answer did not fit.

Anyhoo, today I decided to start working on the project from scratch and examining the facts only. It was such a relief to see everything fall into place! I should have done this much earlier instead of trying to make something that was broken look okay.

Question: How do you deal with situations where someone whose opinion you respect is wrong? Are you quick to examine the facts and let them speak for themselves, or are you like me, sometimes stuck on the fact that the source is credible and therefore, you must be the one making the mistake somewhere?

1 comment:

Pamela said...

I am getting more confident and able to speak out in my...ah hem...mature years. Sometimes you've got to put someone else's ego out to pasture and say what you gotta say, but there is much to be said for diplomacy. Unless the size of the ego has caused 100% deafness in that supposed expert. Struggling with the issue myself these days...What I admire about you is your willingness to take advice from others and share your own expertise!

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