Just the other day, I had a PM say "why do you question/argue so much? Just do what they say. If it's wrong, you can then say 'I told you so'".
I can not really square that circle. I spent many years earlier not questioning things up front, just rushing ahead and doing stuff, then inevitably it was 'wrong'. I've been doing this a long time now, and questioning up front saves time. It does come across as 'arguing' sometimes, I know - I've raised my voice more than once.
I wanted to turn the question around and ask "why do my questions/input/suggestions always get argued with and fought against? Can you just run with my input for a week or two, and if I'm wrong, you can say 'I told you so'?" I didn't throw that back, as I'm not sure it would have been taken well.
I had replied "you can say I told you so" thing isn't just me saying "see, I told you so", it ALSO means I'll be having to clean up the 'original' way of doing something and rebuild it the 'right' way, which puts everything behind schedule and wastes money and time.
I have similar experience. When I was in the military I was very "Sir, yes sir". Nowadays, I need to understand what / why I am doing what I am doing. It's worked well for me in hyper growth environments and not so well in established companies where people don't question the status quo.
I could be wrong here, but generally I see two types of people. People who care about what they're doing and people who don't (missionaries vs. mercenaries).
The trick is to not come off combative or argumentative. Tricking people into thinking something was their idea has worked well for my personal journey.
100% "The trick is to not come off combative or argumentative". But I've never had to worry about "Tricking people into thinking something was their idea". It is always their idea, I just refine it.
I'm 15 years in and my PM puts me on special high profile cases, be it a new project or a failing one. She will literally tell the customer "We've got 'insert name' on this. He will ask a lot of questions and it may take him some time to complete, but rest assured that when he's done, it will be exactly what you need."
No pressure, right? I need to communicate very clearly about everything. If I feel there's a risk, I call it out EARLY. My PM wants to get out ahead of any issues and have all the resources that I need ready to go when I need them.
The upside of all of this is I have a "get out of jail" card. Because my PM and leadership know that it's actually done when I say it's done, they encourage me to take my time and do it right. Overtime, what's that? They know the mind fogs when someone works too much. I'll get scolded if I work too much.
Even when only working 30 hours a week, I find myself quite spent. I have no idea how people work 40-60 hours a week and still have the energy to go out and do anything.
Yes, you are absolutely right, we should absolutely do the thing that I manage to on the surface make sound very similar to what you just said but is actually the opposite. :)
Just the other day, I had a PM say "why do you question/argue so much? Just do what they say. If it's wrong, you can then say 'I told you so'".
I can not really square that circle. I spent many years earlier not questioning things up front, just rushing ahead and doing stuff, then inevitably it was 'wrong'. I've been doing this a long time now, and questioning up front saves time. It does come across as 'arguing' sometimes, I know - I've raised my voice more than once.
I wanted to turn the question around and ask "why do my questions/input/suggestions always get argued with and fought against? Can you just run with my input for a week or two, and if I'm wrong, you can say 'I told you so'?" I didn't throw that back, as I'm not sure it would have been taken well.
I had replied "you can say I told you so" thing isn't just me saying "see, I told you so", it ALSO means I'll be having to clean up the 'original' way of doing something and rebuild it the 'right' way, which puts everything behind schedule and wastes money and time.