photo credit: science blogs
LAF Note: This guest post was written by Jason Falls. All together now: “Heh.”
When you face a communications breakdown, whether it’s between two people or even two companies, you can almost always blame one thing for the problem: Assumptions. There’s a reason for the clever reminder, “You know what happens when you assume?” (For those unfamiliar, the rhetorical answer is, “You make an A-S-S out of U and ME.”)
Think about the last time you had a spat with a friend. The problem likely stemmed from the fact you assumed she meant one thing when she really meant another, he assumed you were going to handle that part of the project or you assumed they would be okay with you bringing the third party along.
While the layers of complication are greater, company communications breakdowns are no different. Let’s say you are a public relations account manager and you want to approach a super cool, web start-up company with a partnership for one of your clients. You assume they’re interested in your client’s money so you make the calls only to be frustrated with a lack of response or interest.
What you didn’t know is that the web start-up business model has nothing to do with finding revenue from advertising or corporate sponsorships. Web start-ups normally are interested in driving members, not revenue. Their end-game is to sell to a bigger company for millions, not sell ad space for thousands.
You know what happens when you assume?
I’ve had a friend frustrated with me before that I didn’t respond quickly to a direct messages she sent me on Twitter. But her frustration went away when she realized I was on a four-hour flight without access, or perhaps in a client meeting with my phone and computer turned off. Assuming I’m sitting at my computer with Tweetdeck up monitoring my direct messages all the time … you know what happens when you do that?
Probably the best business advice I ever received was a basic tenant of good communications: Think like the other guy and you’ll be more successful dealing with them.
The, “walk a mile in their shoes,” approach gives you a different perspective on the conversation, negotiation or situation. It helps you see why your message wasn’t clear, didn’t persuade or fell short in accomplishing what you were looking to do.
So the next time you’re frustrated with the lack of response, upset with someone for their attitude or something they said, step back, remove emotion from the equation and put yourself in their shoes. Consider factors other than their intent, or lack thereof. If you do, you’ll quickly find fewer communications breakdowns in your own relationships, personal or otherwise.
Jason Falls assumes this post will be useful for you. If not, you can file complaints with him via Twitter (he’s @JasonFalls) or on his blog at SocialMediaExplorer.com.
