The Critical Thinker
PURE & SIMPLESM Critical Thinking Tips Used By Winners
Issue 3/09
No Motherhood
Statements please!
You have heard them time and again…
“Do it as soon as possible”
“Reply at your earliest convenience”
“The morale problem”
“The sales problem”
The list goes on…
Yes, there could be valid reasons for making these statements
– such as when you are in a negotiation, and making broad,
generalized statements could provide you with more leverage
later on in the process. Or, you are in a situation where you
deliberately want to leave it to your audience to in interpret the
message you are putting across. The later is often true of leaders.
If you have observed Barack Obama closely, you will notice that
he’s a master, a fact noted by his supporters and opponents!
However, if you have to follow through or respond to the
four statements listed above, it is not going to be a simple as it
looks.
When is “As soon as possible?” Today? Next week? Often it
depends on who is making the request.
If it’s the big boss, most people would do it immediately,
dropping other tasks, regardless of what they might be and how
critical they are. But if it is not, and you happen to be the
requesting party, your instructions will not be clearly
understood. To compound the problem, most people are too
polite to seek clarification, especially when you are the boss!
I have many “Reply at your earliest convenience” emails,
letters and faxes which remain unattended because it’s still not
convenient for me – to reply.
Be specific not pushy!
You can be specific in your requests, without being pushy or
bossy. For example, you can say, “To ensure that your deadline
is met, I will need your reply by Friday next week,” or, “I will, if
it is convenient with you, follow through with my proposal on
Monday, 24 February.”
And on your part, make sure that you do follow through on
Monday, 24 February, because he/she will be expecting you to
do so!
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SM
Do you want to solve world hunger?
Let’s turn our attention next to the “Morale and Sales
problems”. Trying to solve them, even singly, is like trying to
solve world hunger. You can’t!
What exactly does “Morale Problem” mean? Are people
resigning from your organization? Maybe they are not achieving
targets? Or perhaps you’ve found the company’s newsletter in
the trash can? All these are separate problems and must be
treated as such, even though there might be a cause-and-effect
relationship between them. It’s obviously easier to address the
staff turnover problem, say among administrative staff, than it is
to address the all too common “morale problem” – it allows us
to ask critical “What”, “Where”, “When” & “How” questions.
Similarly, the “sales problem”, on further questioning, could
often end up being specific and separate problems, such as:
• Below forecast sales of product X in Western region
• High rate of returned canned goods in Toa Payoh
• Sales people are still in the office at 12noon when they
should be out in the field by 10am
• Orders taken by sales people in the day are not logged
in the CRM system by 9.30am the next day
The need to be specific, to the point, crystal clear, is
fundamental to addressing and resolving issues effectively. Our
observation is that we tend to speak in generalities because, if
we are not careful, we can invariably talk ourselves into a tight
spot; we are concerned about “pinning ourselves down”.
But in terms of effectiveness, this approach is often counter-
productive. Beating round the bush is like chasing one’s own
tail. You don’t get anywhere!
Einstein was right: If the man or woman in the street doesn’t
understand what you are saying, you probably don’t understand
it yourself. So nomotherhood statements. Please!
The Critical ThinkerSM is produced by DPI Asia, the Asian operations of Decision Processes
International, a global management consulting and human capital development firm
specializing in critical thinking processes that help organizations transform the way they
conduct their business.
It is an insightful yet light-hearted series of articles that take a PURE & SIMPLESM look at the
essential day-to-day aspects of critical thinking that separate winners from the rest.
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