Make it tangible for me

If I was to hold an apple in my left hand and ask you to close your eyes and describe it, you might say it’s red, has a stem, size of a baseball etc. If I were to hold in my right hand a megabyte and ask you to describe it, it might be very difficult. This is very similar to the ideas and concepts we have in our minds, but we fail to describe it in a way that it becomes real and tangible to people. You leave it up to chance that people know what you mean.

If done well…

There are people with incredible skills in asking the right kinds of questions that help draw out in others this idea and concept they have. A great question I love is “If done well…”. The 3 periods you fill in the blank. It fast forwards people to describe the end state, the outcomes and creates more questions for clarity.

I was on a conference call once and the gal was trying to describe her operational vision and how they were going to transform how they did things. Lots of concepts came spewing out like “a new deployment methodology” and “parallel tracks”. However, I still struggle to understand what of that meant to her. I definitely knew what it meant for me, as I had my own view on this. But I needed to know what she meant and how I could help her achieve this “transformation”. After her articulation, I asked her “Help me understand a bit more, your ideas on a new methodology if it is done well in 8 months what does that look like to you?” It begged for more follow-up questions that really helped her and I to see the tangibility to what ideas she had.

Benefit

There is a huge amount of value or benefit that comes from making things more tangible. First, you have a higher probability that you and others will be rowing in the same direction and achieve your outcomes with a lot less bumps along the way. Secondly, you limit your chances for missing the target or having to go back several steps. Finally, you help others become more successful at what they are trying to achieve.

Now go take on the day…

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