Have you ever worked with someone who seems to delight in pointing out how other people are wrong? I attended a workshop recently with some of my teaching colleagues and we were discussing various approaches and philosophies that we follow.

I mentioned that when teaching I try to never make a student “wrong” when he or she offers a comment or answer in the classroom. I try to find at least some grain of truth or good idea in what students say when they take the initiative to speak up, even if they haven’t given the exact answer or idea I was looking for. Later on I thought about the notion of making this a rule in the workplace.

Some years ago in one of my first jobs, I worked with someone who had very rigid ideas about how things should be done in the office. I remember that while I was setting up my files, she pointed out that I was doing it wrong when it came to putting the plastic tabs on hanging folders. She opened her own filing cabinet to show me that all the plastic tabs on her files were placed on the right and perfectly aligned so that each tab was lined up directly behind the one in front. Of course this looked very neat and tidy when you opened the filing cabinet.

I was placing my tabs in a staggered format so that they were not lined up perfectly. One hanging file might have a plastic tab on the left side, the next might be in the middle, and the next might be on the right-hand side. I pointed out to her that this allowed me to identify a file I needed at a glance, without having to sift through all the tabs. Using her approach, the only tab you could read at a glance was the one on the first hanging folder at the front of the drawer.

Then you had to separate each hanging file so you could see each tab to identify the file you were looking for. She was quite insistent that her way was correct. Then I also mentioned that the hanging folders came with a variety of slots in them, allowing one to place the tabs in a variety of positions on the folders. This suggested there could be flexibility in the way one placed one’s plastic tabs. This point also failed to convince her and she always stuck to her conviction that her way was “right” and mine was “wrong,” an approach that she often expressed when it came to just about any decision or process in the office.

I used to have a manager many years ago who always said, “All roads lead to Rome.” It was his way of saying that he was comfortable with the idea of using different approaches to getting things done as long as the required outcome was achieved. There may sometimes be very good reasons for insisting that something be done in a certain way, especially when it comes to matters of safety, quality control or adhering to legal requirements. But for the most part, there are many different ways to achieve the same goals in a workplace.

If you are tempted to view others as wrong, I encourage you to step back and reconsider whether their approach is just as likely to achieve the required outcomes as your own. It might save you a lot of stress, improve your relationships and even help you learn a new and equally effective approach to getting a task done. Despite her insistence on how things should be done, I found a way to co-exist and work effectively with my co-worker, even though her way of setting up hanging folders was clearly wrong.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!