A Full House Beats Three Kings
Not long out of college, when the tradition was for everyone to get a job, get married, and get a house, many peers were talking of the benefits of a finished basement. The problem was, I heard “Finnish basement,” and never having owned a house, figured that this was a sophisticated Nordic feature, akin to a sauna or ice fishing.
Fortunately, the pronunciation was close enough so that I didn’t embarrass myself and everyone assumed I was not as abysmally dumb as I was about this.
Prior to this, I was the beneficiary of a classical liberal arts education at Rutgers, and our “western civilization” professor spent a great deal of time on “The Sun King,” France’s Louis XIV. “Fourteenth” in French is Quatorze and our professor often called him Louis Quatorze or “Le Roi Soleil.”
Near the end of the semester, a guy across from me asked, “Which of the three kings is he going to focus on in the final?” I told him he had better study all of them.
We create these inadvertent falsifications all too frequently. We believe what a disaffected employee tells us about a client without applying our observations to validate the claim. We accept “projection” by others: “You’ll never be able to get to see her,” or “You’ll never be able to ski that mountain.” For years I had heard that the CEO of Merck at the time, Roy Vagelos, was a tyrant. But when I sat in meetings with him I found him to be a tough but very fair leader, who listened to reason and changed his mind when presented with factual arguments.
This phenomenon is stimulated by laziness—it’s easier to accept comments than to take the time to check them out. I’ve heard people admit they rush over words they don’t know, guessing at the meaning, rather than simply tapping the iPad screen and generating an instant definition. I fell off a chair when a consultant, asked for comment on a client initiative, said that he found it “meretricious.” (Definition: Of or relating to a prostitute.)
If you don’t know, ask. If you’re not sure, test. If you’re unfamiliar, admit it.
Otherwise, you may just retreat to your office to get some work done only to find three guys in your sauna.
© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.
Robert Wallis
Excellent post. I fell that the best leaders are the ones who are willing to “change their mind when presented with factual arguments”. Working for a public entity by day, I see far too little of this. come to think of it, even in the private sector, I saw far too little of it.
Alan Weiss
You’re right. Too often it’s: “Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?”