Interesting, but not necessarily correct
Dinner in a Parisian restaurant recently; there’s a notice pinned to a box on the wall:
Your comments interest us.
I love that they’re curious to hear what you think; that they’ll weigh up what you say and – in the refreshing underlying implication of the message – that they may well conclude that whilst you are entitled to your opinion, it may be entirely wrong.
Feedback on proposals – from customers or team members – is always facinating to hear. Yet, of course, it’s not always correct, fair – or, necessarily, honest: people do play games to protect their own position, avoid conflict, transfer blame, claim credit, seize the moral high ground, dodge further actions. It’s why strong, impartial facilitation of these debriefs and workshops is so important.
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Boy, isn’t that the truth. At a former employer, when I asked the sales person why we lost a deal, “the price” was often the default answer. I got tired of that answer and started to press for more details. In order to get my point across, if a sales person told me we lost because of price, I would respond, “oh, I see. So they didn’t like you.” A little poke at the insecurities of every sales person I know! A bit cruel, but my point being, price is a copout answer in most cases. Why did we really lose? Get to the heart of it. Press the issue, hire a consultant to find out, whatever it takes, we can’t fix what we don’t know is wrong.