Sometimes Even The Clear Message Won’t Be Heard
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Apr 29, 2006
(originally published April 11th, 2006)
Yesterday I was talking to another consultant about something we’d gone back and forth with for about two weeks. I asked him if he’d called the party that I said he should call to verify the information before I did what he was asking me to do, fully knowing that what he wanted me to do was wrong. He basically went off on a different tangent, which meant he wasn’t going to call; he just wanted me to make the change without verification.
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I’d had enough, so I pulled out the Palm, looked up the name of my expert in the field, and called. I explained the issue to her, and she looked up the regulations; I was correct. She then asked him for something that she could check to see what the issue might have been, and she discovered it had absolutely nothing to do with what he wanted me to do, which I had figured all along. We were on speakerphone, so he heard what she was saying, told us where to go online to see the problem, and told us what the full regulations were.
Not even two minutes after hanging up the phone, he said he didn’t know if he believed her or not; my goodness! I mean, one doesn’t just have experts sitting around the office waiting to be called incompetent, especially when it’s written down in manuals created by the government; okay, let’s not go there! 🙂
Sometimes you put out the proper message, but the audience isn’t ready to hear it. I’ve said that, regarding my speaking engagements, if only 10% of the people I talk to actually listen and think about what I’ve said, then go back and make even the smallest change in their processes, I’ve done my job. That’s the reason there are so may different types of presenters out there; not every speaker is every listener’s cup of tea.
So, it’s not always you, the messenger, who has to change the message. Sometimes, you just have to realize that the message isn’t going to be heard, no matter what it is, and you have to move on. That’s a tough lesson as a consultant, an even tougher lesson as a manager, but we each must do what we must do to move forward.
