Country Music, Life, and Getting Along

Let me say right here that I really enjoy country music. I was listening this morning and heard a new song by Toby Keith.

(If you follow country music at all you will know who he is. If you don't, well turn on a country radio station and listen for a few songs. You will probably hear one of his songs!)

Anyway, there were a few lines in his new song that really struck a chord with me. It reminds me that, sometimes, we just don't agree with our colleagues.

"Hate me if you want to
Love me if you can!"

I mean, that says a lot. As Popeye would say, "I am what I am!"

"Why don't we just agree to disagree!"

This is my thought when faced with a situation where someone gets very angry that I can't see their point about something. We all have strong beliefs about some things. And how we feel about these things will not be changed by arguing with people. So let's just agree to disagree and not get angry and decide we don't like one another any more. We just have something that we can't agree on.

And so it is with our work life as a technical communicator. We each have strong feelings about the way we document something. We have strong feelings about how we write training. We have strong feelings about how we present technical information. The point being that there is more than one way to accomplish technical communication. We need to learn from our peers. We need to be more accepting of their opinions. Sometimes they may have a better idea or way. And, if you can't agree with their way of doing it, just agree to disagree.