Trusting the people you’re working with

So I’m going to possibly start an unfortunate trend here by clearly stating that at least two of the next two posts I post will have blatant and irrefutable references to Star Trek. Sorry, can’t help it. Wasn’t like I planned on doing it, just sort of worked out that way. I mean, how do you have a post about industry, client and employee edumacation and not do it? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Okay, so I have this bad habit of practicing things I want to say, as in, prepping for situations so that I have the perfect comeback, one-liner, or zinger on the tip of my tongue so that it looks like I’m spontaneously verbally gifted. That’s sort of a secret, so keep it to yourself. I don’t do it in front of the mirror, there aren’t any gestures or key facial expressions needed. It’s the words and the rhythm I’m toying with. Anyway, I set up these situations in my head to figure out what it is I should do and say. Sometimes they devolve into slightly less than plausible and/or realistic scenarios involving dinosaur attacks and aliens that look like Lynda Carter, but I do my best to keep them productive.

In those moments, focusing on work related situations is a way to ground myself. Those usually entail coming up with the “greatest design in the world”. One which not only wins me the accolades of every creative person ever, it also impresses the client so much the first time out of the gate that I don’t have to make any revisions or do a second round.

Sigh. Yes, that is rather implausible. It does however lead me into what this post is about: edumacation.

Edumacation (yes, from Homer Simpson) simply put is the difficult process of getting people (clients, management, staff, random strangers on the street) to understand vaporware – - or, as I like to phrase it, The Potential. In theory, the more someone knows about something the more they should know about something. That’s not always the case, and that’s fine. I don’t care how many times I watch Texas Hold-Em I’m still sure I’d get my butt kicked because the card strategy just doesn’t quite click with me. In that case, I would then default to someone who does know what’s going on. No, not Helmuth. Not Moneymaker. We’re talking Ivey, Hanson and probably throw Doyle in there.

So, time for a really cool “what if”.  Let’s say I’m playing poker and the game is for the fate of the universe (it could happen) and it’s really, really, really important that I win. If I get to have someone help me out, let’s say Daniel Negreanu, and he’s there to guide me through the process of securing the safety of everybody every where, then considering that he’s waaaaaaay better than me I would default to his suggestions. Would only make sense. I trust he’s going to make a much better decision than I could. I’d always end up folding pocket 5s.

Same thing if I go to a doctor for surgery. If I go to him then I’m trusting he knows what he’s doing. Why would I tell him how he should be doing it? I’m buying his knowledge, his skill and his experience.

Same can be said of anything, like, oh, I don’t know – - interactive. I’ve worked for places in the past, even when I did freelance, where the client kept explaining to me how I should do things. “This should be that picture”, and “make that larger”, and “I don’t like yellow” (which was actually their logo color). And I remember thinking, “dude (or dudette, depending on the case), I know what I’m doing – - more than you”. See, the key is that edumacation thing: being able to develop a bond, so that you can trust that we will give you a superior product.

That edumacation process takes a while. Devloping a rapport takes a while. Building trust takes a while.

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Tags: adopt and adapt, communications, creativity, Design, functionality

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 8:24 am and is filed under Company. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.