Life lesson - ask another question

I have learned something the hard way yesterday and so I thought I would pass it on so as to maybe help anyone reading this to maybe avoid the same thing. That is - when you think you have all of a story - as another question.

I was in a meeting about a project that has 'blown up' a little bit. And I thought that I had some of the story (which I did, just not all of it) and one individual was really going on about 'who owns this issue'. I tend to be the type of person that it doesn't matter who owns it or who 'gets the glory' for a project - if it needs to get done, just do it. And we don't need 15 meetings with 15 people there to make sure that it does need to get done. If we need to do it - just do it.

So while I thought I had all of the information - I made a statement - which was more of an acusation. And it blew up in my face. The reason is I didn't ask another question. The question in this case that could have saved a bunch of stuff splattering all over me and making me look like a fool would have been - Why are you reacting this way?

While I don't know if I would have gotten an answer or not - it would have allowed this person the chance to explain what was going on and the part of the story that I didn't know. Of course this was revealed to me in some pretty harsh tones right after I had shut my mouth.....  

So lesson is: Ask another question. Allow the other person to at least explain thier side of the story. Because you may not have all of the information.