When two people are convinced they’re right, arguing about it usually isn’t going to solve anything. Get the facts.

Sometimes that means pulling out the drawings. Sometimes it’s measurements, photos, documentation, or a whiteboard. And sometimes you need to go to the site and look at it yourself.

A photo might make it look like I’m right, but the person standing in the field may be seeing something the photo doesn’t show. There could be conduit, a raceway, a hanger, or some other obstruction just outside the picture. The drawing might say one thing while the actual site conditions say something different.

That’s why I put a lot of value on what the person closest to the work is telling me. They’re looking at things I may not be able to see from where I’m sitting.

There’s also a difference between disagreeing about the facts and disagreeing about how to do the work. There are usually several ways to accomplish something. If the person doing the work has a different way than I would do it, that doesn’t automatically make their way wrong.

Look at the measurable result. Is it safe? Does it meet the requirement? Is one method going to take considerably more time or create unnecessary steps? Is there a more efficient way to get the same result?

Maybe they show me something I hadn’t considered. Maybe I show them another way they hadn’t considered. Either way, we both walk away knowing something we didn’t know before.

It isn’t about proving who was right. It’s about getting the facts, respecting the person doing the work, and getting the job done right.