Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Demystifying Ignorance: The power of the Question

Many people I know struggle with their jobs and much more because they weren't "properly" informed. I hear this problem in the case of software requirements, in the case of unfinished projects, in the case of important conversations and more. This happens often during performance appraisals - "I did not know you wanted me to do that... or you did not inform me", etc.

The words "properly informed" can mean one of two things: that the informant did not pass the information completely , or that the recipient did not ask the right question.

I will argue that the case is entirely the latter. Why?

For starters, let's look at it from the point of the informant: How can the informant know whether he/she conveyed all the information that was to be conveyed?

Unless the recipient asks relevant questions to complete his/her understanding of the information, there is no way for theinformant to know whether the matter was fully conveyed.

So, the question now becomes: "What questions do I ask theinformant?"

What do you think?

P.S. If you like these postings, please "follow" the blog to keep abreast with the comments.



By 
Dr.Balasubramanian Krishnan
Chief Executive Officer

No comments:

Post a Comment