What exactly do you want when you request a completed task? Do you know...? Can you see the finished product projected onto screens of your mind...?
Few would disagree that most shoddy results come from a lack of clear excpectations.
It reminds me of a conversation I heard not too long ago ... "What d’ ya want anyway?" ... a manager shouted to his supervisor … Then he stomped off in a huff…
Next day I learned the reason for the manager’s outburst. 
Seems he was asked to create a catalogue to highlight 12 new product lines for engineering equipment that was just licensed and ready to promote....After two weeks work with a team of three experts he was told they got it all wrong. So when the team’s leader delivered the catalogue to his supervisor, he was chewed out rather than praised….
Ever happen to you? … you think you see the details clearly … you even imagine colors, lines and textures of your requested project as if you can read the mind of your boss… Then…instead of a hearty thanks…your hard work invokes a reprimand….
All the details you imagined and created turned out wrong ….and you are left wondering what went wrong….You blame yourself or others…and you resent the wasted time and effort.
It’s as if you were cooking up a fine steak … only it ends up being served ... in error ...to a vegetarian …. Or as if you offered a company car to an Amish colleague…who's renounced cars. The problem lies in lack of clear expectations – an ingredient the mind requires to deliver accurate results…. What do you think?
Try as we might, we rarely see details exactly ...as they lie in another person’s mind…. In most cases we can get much closer to another person’s expectations than we do, though… Agree?
That’s where MITA rubrics come in. It's let's people know what you expect.
Rather than vague directions ... say the manager and his team was given a specific rubric ...or a set of guideline criteria to help create that calendar? How would the story have changed...?
What precise details would you have given in this case...? What details will you provide for a project that would allow others to bring out the outcome you imagined …?
What would others see as the colors, lines and textures you expect?
» Stick a Problem in My Day But Don't Bore Me (2)... from BrainBasedBusiness
Have you noticed how good questions help workers to map their interior worlds and motivate problem solvers to explore new lands? Leaders who help their teams identify specific targets will also enable more workers to hit targets wit... [Read More]
Tracked on: May 20, 2006 10:39 AM | Permalink to Trackback