know when to stop

Voicing an opinion is not just freedom of speech but it allows individuals to express their disagreement/agreement during a discussion, as a contribution. However, depending upon what the discussion is about, how we time our input and how the sentences/questions are constructed reflects upon ourselves and our thoughts about whose side we are on. If the discussion involves third parties, especially when it's about allocating the cause/blame, then it becomes a very sensitive matter to the parties who are at stake.

Unfortunately for some, they are only able to focus on technical issues and in a sensitive discussion, seeking more clarification on such matters may not help in resolving the dispute. To resolve a dispute, we just need to know, who is responsible for the mess, the guilty party. How an equipment failed, ceases in importance, once a protocol has been breached.

When managing a building, any failure to report is just oversight, until it is discovered. And once it has been discovered, then the party who failed to report is at fault. It doesn't matter whether the equipment was functioning or not. It only matters that a report was not filed.

I had one such meeting today. And the people put in place to monitor the equipment, failed to supervise well, and allowed lapses such that other people accessed a faulty equipment which almost resulted in exposing a building to safety issues. This was a serious problem. It could have cost the building owner too much in terms of money and legal implications. To compound it, parties representing the building owners were insensitive to when technical questions were posed resulting in other representatives of the owners seeking clarification on whether those people were on the same team to begin with.

It's always good to clarify, but timing is of the essence.
So, much as we wish to expand our technical knowledge, it's best we also understand that we should always contribute only when we are able to add value to the discussion, otherwise, it's best we be quiet and let the other professionals handle the situation. Some people are just like automatic trains - programmed to stop at the next station and only at the next station. Never mind if we knocked a goose over, the computer interface board was not programmed to stop in between