Newsletter: Clarity

“It’s all perfectly clear to me. Why doesn’t everyone else get what I meant?”

One of my ex-bosses was notorious for that. I worked so very hard to achieve year end targets to find that the phrase ‘solution production’ meant something in his head which wasn’t in my head at all. My fault, I hadn’t attended all the telepathy classes at the Open University.  From then on I resolved to ignore what he actually said and work harder on interpreting what I thought he perhaps might mean.

How much time in the office is spent talking about how others operate? Thank goodness the coffee machine is not a recording device. It isn’t is it? Phew. We talk so much about others because often we are struggling to understand why they do the things they do, their ‘modus operandi’ is not clear, it is certainly not the way we would go about it anyway. We spend a lot of energy trying to work out why ‘what it said on the tin’ is not what we actually experienced. Usually of course we lay blame, but that’s always been our nature.

I wonder if people are afraid of being clear with each other? I spoke recently with a Russian living in the UK now for 4 years, married to an Englishman. She had accommodated, but was puzzled for the first 3 years about why when she told people the truth they got upset. ‘We tell the truth in Russia’ she said confidently. “That’s what people want to hear. How else can you get anything done?” She then went on to explain how collusion / collaboration made her about 50% productive compared to being allowed just to get on with her job. “You never really know what people mean here” she said. “They say yes, but actually mean yes in principle not yes in practical terms.”

I found the same working with a French construction company in the UK. The French were as frustrated, clearly us Brits have a problem with clarity.

Of course, because we are within the problem we probably can’t see it very well. But maybe we suffer unduly because of it, and the following test will find that out.

Firstly, let’s start next week being clear with ourselves. Set a time we are going to go home from work and stick to it. Decide which work tasks are high priority and do those, dropping the low priority ones. Delete 60% of emails without reading them.

The following week we can try and be clear with our colleagues. If we want something done by Friday we tell them the deadline, plus the chasing method, plus the effect if it is not done. We request notice by Thursday if it will not be done, and that notice should include an alternative. Failing that we will hold a review with them which will be so long, arduous and painful they will want us off their back and will prefer to do what we ask rather than go through that time consuming review ever again. 

Gosh this does sound decisive doesn’t it? Some would even say it’s acerbic (I looked that one up in the dictionary). Maybe that’s because we are British though and want to please all parties. Then again, maybe others would be pleased with clarity.

Try this question in a meeting: “Are you making this point to help us reach a resolution or are you trying to stall the decision?”. Once you get the garbled apologetic answer you can then steer them towards the former. Or this in a phone call: “I am incredibly busy. I want to give you my best attention but its not now. It’s at least a week away. How do you want to take this forward?”

Clarity doesn’t mean mean-ness. But it does mean a component of selfishness .. a determination that we are going to spend our time on the important things and eradicate time wastage.  I am now about to phone my Russian friend and tell her I have just alienated my team in the office but at least the project will get done, although my French friend will reassure me that when the project is in on time and under budget and I take everyone for a celebratory meal I will be forgiven.



Mark Miller is Director of Goodfoot., click here for further details