Work with Me
Monday, August 01, 2011
Standing in a line during an errand over the weekend, I came across a blog post featuring a bullet list titled, "How to Work with Me," that the blog author received in preparation for working with a bigwig who, in the blogger's words, "doesn't have time for bullshit."
I wouldn't exactly call the list items principles, but they are close to being that useful. The items are too tailored to said bigwig's temperament, personal style, and workday milieu to be principles, but I would say that the principles behind the advice are so close to the surface that almost anyone could glean some useful ideas about how to make working on a team a more productive experience.
You will find items that strike a nerve, perhaps because you've always wanted to complain or do something about someone else's miscommunication or poor use of your time; and you will find items that leave you thinking something like, "Huh. I've never considered that before," or, "I think I'll start being clear about that issue myself, from now on."
Here are a few of the items:
10. Be consistent in your communication. Use words consistently. Use email headers consistently. Strive to make your work immediately comprehensible.Whoever this is, I also particularly like his approach to meetings, which I recognize as necessary, but usually hate because so many of them waste so much time.
11. If you disagree with me, voice your differences. I welcome and invite dissent. If this makes you uncomfortable, feel free to prepare your thoughts after the meeting and then later return to make your case.
12. Ego-driven debates annoy me. Check your ego at the door: I'm only interested in reaching the best, most elegant solution -- I don't care if it's your idea or mine.
13. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you're not clear. I have more patience for explaining and clarifying my position before you start than I do patience for fixing a wasteful, incorrect approach after the fact.
The work you trade with others brings you more profit the more effective its product is for your customer and the more efficiently you deliver it. Both sources of profit depend on clear communication and good use of time. This executive clearly understands this and is nipping several common problems related to communication and time in the bud.
-- CAV
I agree that it was time for a coaching change for the U.S. Men's national soccer team, but am not as sanguine as many seem to be about the choice of Juergen Klinsmann for the role. George Vecsey of the New York Times raises two big concerns: How is the man as a tactician, and does he really understand the psyche of the American player?
I can feel the annoyance of the school marm who got kicked out of Starbucks after not using its silly vernacular -- memorably dubbed "Starbucks Esperanto" by Joe Queenan. However, I found her confrontational attitude silly and unproductive. The proper response to being told, "You're not going to get anything unless you say butter or cheese," isn't to call the barista an "asshole" and give him a reason to call the cops. It's to say -- if you really are that annoyed -- "I'll get a plain bagel now, or your complaint department and all my friends are going to hear about how Starbucks made me stand in line for nothing."
I'm not sure I'd agree with the author's "evolutionary explanation" for procrastination. (Sure, one will be reluctant to implement a plan he doesn't trust. One can reach this conclusion through introspection, minus any comprehensive theory of psychology. This conclusion thus neither depends on EP nor lends credence to it.) Nevertheless, I think the following idea of his has merit:
[O]ne of the most effective ways to sidestep procrastination is to find the story of someone who personifies what you want to accomplish, figure out how they accomplished what they did, then base your process on their approach. [my emphasis]One reason for procrastination is that one has no idea how to accomplish a goal -- or, perhaps (as in the case of "have a successful career") hasn't really set a definite goal. Looking at a successful model can at least provide a framework for clarifying one's objectives or finding a path towards achieving them.
9 comments:
Starbucks was asking for trouble with that menu. I don't normally do business there, so I can't speculate as to whether they formulated it for the sake of glamor or political correctness, but either way it creates an artificial communication obstacle between customers and staff. Calling the smallest size of something a "tall" is especially counterintuitive, especially considering that a large fraction of customers will not look at the menu at all.
That scene reminded me of selling hot dogs in a 7-11. The marketroids, in their infinite wisdom, called the small size a "Big Bite" and the large a "Super Big Bite." When a customer came to me with a closed foil pouch and described its contents as a "big 'un," there was no way for me to tactfully sort it out. I ended up making half of them irate and undercharging the other half. (Although admittedly, there was a certain type of customer who would come in looking for an altercation, and another type whose lack of clear thinking and manners were enough of a problem on their own.)
It's rare for me to go to Starbucks, too. (I dislike how they over-roast their coffee for one thing.) I agree with you that their menu sizes are confusing, but I read somewhere, long ago, that in the original stores, there was a small size (which you can still get) called "small" and that whatever their largest size is didn't exist, yet. Somehow, knowing that has made their size nomenclature slightly less annoying to me.
Your story (and mention of customers looking for a fight), in turn, reminds me of when I worked at MacDonald's during college. Sometimes, I worked drive-through, and around 5:00, some really irate customers would stop on the way home from work.
One day, on top of the usual after-work tempers, I got a really nasty-sounding customer, who asked for an "eighteen piece" Chicken McNuggets (sizes on the menu then were six, nine and twenty). So, of course, I asked whether he wanted three sixes or two nines. He immediately raised his voice and shouted, "You figure it out!"
So I got the small satisfaction of giving him the more expensive trio of six-pieces.
thoughts on the bagel woman: Saying "I want" is rude. "I want" is the thing you say in your head that should never pass your lips. If someone offers you a condiment for your bagel(b/c people forget to ask pretty near continuously) you can simply say "no, thank you." My suspicion is that had she merely said that everything would have been fine, but she constructed her narrative in a manner to suggest that she actually needed to say something else without actually saying so. Having just started a break where I've had to deal with rude jerks continuously for a few hours I have little sympathy for this woman. It sounds like she's a spoiled-rotten brat.
As for the ridiculous drink labels, well.. that's another story, but I'm really only aware of it as someone who makes drinks at some place that is not Starbuck's and it primarily serves as an indicator that the person you are dealing with has the unenviable bad taste to have spent too much time there.
The person who created this list is obviously a neurotic with a God complex. I wouldn't work with such a person for any amount of money. The sheer disrespectfulness of sending such a list out is mind-boggling.
Clay,
I can conceive of the order having gotten to the point that the woman became exasperated and said, "I want," so I'm not ready to call that necessarily rude.
Clarissa,
A list saying how this man wants to run meetings and deal with email (along with things he is kind enough to point out ahead of time as annoying to him or unproductive or both) is enough to diagnose him as neurotic?
He strikes me as blunt, and, perhaps a pain to deal with, but I'd take a heads-up directed at nobody in particular over, say, having to guess what someone with a difficult personality wants, which I've had to do more than once.
Gus
Gus, it strikes me as a very outside possibility that that happened. However, I think that the whole first half of the article with regard to the obnoxious labelling of drink sizes is meant to run interference for the things written in the second half which scan as being less than truthful to my own personal experience. The first half is meant to get you on her side, b/c most everyone finds the Starbuck's labels grating. It does not, however, apparently have anything to do with why she was escorted out by the police. Furthermore, it would appear that she used as the object of her ire someone who is as stuck at the mercy of Starbuck's management or owners as she is(if she chooses to go there). Shame on her for that. The person implementing some asinine policy seldom has any say-so over it.
If she was willing to wait around long enough for the cops to show up she was probably being a rude jerk the entire time until they arrived which strongly suggests an extreme lack of character, which further suggests(in addition to the way that things are portrayed in the article) that she is probably lying about some or all of what happened. I've pretty much reached the conclusion that a "service" economy cannot survive in the absence of a civilised society, or at least not well.
"It does not, however, apparently have anything to do with why she was escorted out by the police."
Excellent point. The headline was indeed misleading.
"Furthermore, it would appear that she used as the object of her ire someone who is as stuck at the mercy of Starbuck's management or owners as she is (if she chooses to go there)."
Also true, and my previous answer to you was hardly intended to defend her.
"If she was willing to wait around long enough for the cops to show up she was probably being a rude jerk the entire time until they arrived which strongly suggests an extreme lack of character, which further suggests (in addition to the way that things are portrayed in the article) that she is probably lying about some or all of what happened."
No argument there.
Yo, Gus, speaking of Starbucks terminology...
Good one!
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