Think of Yes

I have a colleague who is knowledgeable, well-experienced with the industry and he is always willing to support others. Yet 2 things drive me crazy. One, he has the tendency to say ‘yes, yes….but’ (there is always something to ask). Two, he is a worrier. Even with good news, he will come up something concerning.

I had a private yet frank conversation with him because I’d like him and all of us to be successful. His 2 ‘nuggets’ don’t serve him or anybody well. He raised a partner email in our call. I thought to myself ‘again…’ yet I held my voice and said I’d go look for it.

I did. The partner’s email was long, to be honest, it was mostly beyond the system I manage yet because my responsible system is where partners start working, we usually get all the attributions. However, the partner is right, the whole process takes multiple tools and clicks; some jobs have lengthy instruction and if they are small jobs, nobody would be interested in doing it because of the return on (time) investment. We’ve continuously making improvements on the tools and processes. The question is that are people aware of them? It’s not that creators didn’t communicate but how much recipients remembered over time?

Typically communication is at individual release, everybody (partners and teams) is busy and bombarded with lots of information and emails everyday. It’d not be a surprise that the news go in one ear, and people felt ‘great’, then it quickly come out of the other ear. Especially when people face challenge or undesired situation, they wouldn’t recall the good things that have been done but what have not yet happened. We need to change how we tell the story – perhaps quarterly or bi-annually, invite the whole company as well as the community partners (optional attendance) for a demo of highlights: new additions or enhancements across the whole user journey. It’d help team and partner to understand, appreciate, and craft stories for various contexts. I shared the idea with the colleague. He loves it and said it’d be very helpful. I said I’ll talk with others to plan it.

Looking back, I don’t know if the colleague would change yet I’ve learned to listen, appreciate, and think of ‘Yes’ instead of letting emotion or perception to put a roadblock. Trust everybody has good intention and idea. The question is to understand WHY and find appropriate HOW to make WHAT happen.