Know when to shut up (or how to contribute positively by not interfering)

It's easy to get caught up with your own "expertise".



However, I'm quite wary of the term "expert", as it implies not only skill and competence, but also a high degree of achievement. I'd rather go with specialty. Anyway, I found myself in the middle of a discussion regarding an important strategic action in the organization I work for. Since I have a background in organization development, there was a strong impulse in me to put a personal stamp on the said discussion.

This is exacerbated by the fact that I had a fair share of disagreements with the items proposed. For whatever reason, I withheld my opinion from the email threads and only asked questions when face-to-face with the proponents of the proposal, and not with the decision-maker.

I can't say I was completely sold by their arguments, but I opted to trust the decision-maker to distinguish quality. And I admit, I did not expect the overwhelming positive response the proposal met from the boss.



The boss spread the credit to the whole team, and in terms of content, I can't claim that the proposal contained any of my own contribution. I however believe, that by NOT BEING AN ASS, and insisting on my own "expertise" or specialization on the matter given my disagreement with some elements of the proposal, we were able to get this modest success (the big success will be the implementation).