Skip to main content

What they want!

By Bamboo In The Wind
We have a very strange way of solving problems. We try to guess what others might want, turn that into a real need, and provide them with what we think they need. 

An example of this is a child returning from school trying to make a desperate attempt to connect with her parent. They have many stories from the day at school and need someone to listen. We think they are trying to catch attention. We happily assume what they want and shut them down under the garbs of being busy.

A co-worker wants a quick chat with a manager, and the manager brings his own context of co-workers' past interactions and assumes that they know what the co-worker needs and offers no time or tosses them on an inconveniently scheduled meeting. 

When we are in a store, the store in charge has a customer who needs a sledgehammer but misses the point about what the customer wants to do with a sledgehammer. Why is he in the store in the first place?

These examples tell us how we connect with people and misunderstand what they are looking for.


Many times what others want and what we think they want are too far apart. 

There are routine instances of us building context from superficial interactions and interpretations with little effort and insufficient data. We must build context after sustained conversations and debates. Refining what we heard about the need and verifying the realness of need through adequate checks are good ways to arrive at the specificity of what someone's requirements are. 

When we care enough, we are sure to know the story behind the specific needs. We understand what we need to solve that will enable progress for those who receive the benefits of the solution. Can we relate to that journey? Are there ways to participate in their main journey? Would customers be better off connecting with someone we know? Can we volunteer some help beyond what they came to us for? 

There are various ways for one to understand what they want, and yet they may not say! We have to cultivate the art of getting them to say what they are saying. The real need is discovered in what they may not be saying.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Checks and balances!

By Bamboo In The Wind
Defining a good purpose, setting a target goal and getting people working on them is usually not enough! There are too many aspects involved in getting the results we want. For example, there is an aspect of painting the big picture, working on motivation management, productivity tracking, building experimentation labs, and erecting resilient systems that systematize the workflows. Just putting bodies to work and defining milestones rarely achieves the right results. The other aspects that help march towards the milestones in an orderly manner, they are equally important. At the very least, they make objectives widely understandable and results more attainable. The job of a thought leader is to enable progress and enable recovery. Therefore, it is never enough to have just ideas. Those with ideas also have the responsibility to assemble the work environment in such a way as to create situations containing the energy disperses. Energy dispersal from lack of clarity, loss of motivation, ...
Post a Comment
Next »

Choking the communication channel.

By Bamboo In The Wind
There are instances where everything looks in order. Structures are rightly in place. Right roles are defined. Responsibilities are distributed. Bi-directional open communication is expected to take place. And with that, collective work is expected to turn out productive. Yet, when the action begins, everything breaks apart. Productivity dwindles, cooperation is missing, and ad-hoc interactions are common-place That creates chaos. No one appears in charge even though there is someone responsible. It clearly is a sign of broken communication channels. A well-orchestrated workplace focuses on methods to communicate grounds-up and top-down. It encourages patient listening, internalizing and responding rather than reacting. All effective open communication channels are a result of making such communication possible. Often, the structures are set such that you centralize communication of every bit of your activity to someone in the hierarchy. Over time it turns into a permission-based inter...
1 comment
Next »

Unentangle.

By Bamboo In The Wind
Some circumstances warrant protecting your time and effort. Saying no to everything and ruthlessly keeping space becomes your priority. Space that can hold the opportunity to take something that excites you. There are distractions thrown your way. Carrots are dangling in front of you, making you believe that a brighter future lies in following a defined path. They are others' views of the opportunities, not yours. When you are picky about what you want to do - the right way to go is to say no until you can say whole body yes to something that ignites you. Eventually, what you do may work or not. But you made your choice. Some other circumstances warrant a mechanism for creating opportunities. You ought to find ways to use your time and effort to do something worthwhile. Say yes to what comes your way, and keeping up with exploration provides experience. Experience in what among many options to pick from. By knowing what those options involve. When you are open about what you want t...
Post a Comment
Next »