One of the favorite things I’ve learned working in IT is to “Trust. But Verify”. I find it especially helpful when I answer support tickets as users are frequently either mistaken about what they’re seeing (an ambiguous error message), or unable to provide all the information (e.g. they don’t realize they’re missing permissions). To me it means that I trust that the partner or customer I’m working with is giving me their best possible info, but that I still need to back it up and look into it myself. Pulling up the floorboards this way not only helps me determine the root cause of whatever’s happening, but also helps me learn about systems and processes in new ways.

Generally I don’t say “Trust, but verify” to the folks I’m working with (although I do use it in mentoring/coaching sessions to help folks get in the mindset of validating everything). Instead I have a number of variations I use, things like

• “Prove it” - Generally more in teaching situations where someone tells me they have the answer / they’ve done something cool. I use this phrase to challenge the person I’m working with and see if they’ve really done what they think they’ve done. Also something I only really use with folks who know me and won’t be put off by the wording.

• “Can you walk me through what’s happening?” - The more user-friendly version of “Prove it”. Everyone in IT know folks tend to report only small portions of what’s going on, this helps uncover the underlying pieces. It also helps my partners learn the process a bit better since they have to go through it a few times so I can understand it better.

In addition to answering support tickets, this phrase is also great when performing any kind of systems analysis. Frequently what I see isn’t what you get (the opposite of WYSIWYG). I’m finding this to be especially true as I navigate new systems (like Workday) that have underlying architecture or concepts I am unfamiliar with. Simply accepting what I see is a wonderful way to setup myself up for failure! In the same way I trust that my partners are telling me the best info they have, I have to trust that my current understanding is the best one I have at the time. I’m finding I cannot stop there though, I have to dig in deeper to verify what I think I see or know. This might take the form of reading up on documentation (everyone’s favorite past time!), or if I’m lucky asking a teammate who knows more than I do for help.

Every so often I give myself a reminder of this and forget to verify…. this usually results in a bit of rework as I have to go back in a fix things, but the silver lining is I both reinforce this lesson and learn the process a bit better. As a result I’ve found I constantly remind myself to not only trust my own work, but followup and verify that it’s the best I can do.