When We Mess Up at Work

What happens when you mess up at work? Assuming you're not perfect, it likely happens from time to time. 

Frankly, there are lots of ways to mess up. (I know from experience!) Here's a short list typical mess ups at work in the area of communication:

Not paying close attention to what you're reading:

Whether letter, email, or text, words matter. Unfortunately, so many of us are always in a rush, we sometimes skim something we should have read slowly and carefully. Or perhaps we read something but the word order got reversed. (Folks with dyslexia do this as a matter of course.)

Here's an interesting mess-up recently by someone I know (who shall remain anonymous): In responding to a hard copy request for information from a government source, they neglected to turn the page over and mailed the requested documentation to a previous address they had just responded to on the same matter a few weeks earlier. Naturally, the address on the other side of the page was different! (As for why the government source needed updated documents on the same matter sent to a different address, well, that's government for you.)

Remedy:

Develop the habit of reading anything of any conceivable importance a) more slowly, with full attention; b) read it at least 2 times before taking action (e.g., responding).

Responding in writing too quickly:

Let's say we've developed the habit of reading carefully (slowly with full attention and/or reading the communication 2 or more times). If a response is required, we ought to get in the habit of taking sufficient time to a) clearly think through what we want to say; b) review carefully what we've written, whether it's to a boss, a customer, a colleague, an employee. Words have meaning, so we might go the extra mile and try to see how what we've written might be read by someone else. Our purpose here is to avoid misunderstanding. And heaven knows these days people can be pretty hair-trigger sensitive to the least word or gesture that somehow "offends" them. (And aren't there simply so many things that offend folks these days?) So if you think someone might take something the wrong way, make sure you don't send it to them until you re-word/re-write such that they can't possibly take offense.

Bottom line, don't habitually respond quickly. Keep your finger away from the reply button until you're sure you're saying what you want to say in an appropriate manner. If not sure, save a draft and come back to it later.

All of the above focuses on written communication. Then there's verbal communication, which presents a whole other series of possible mess ups. With practice and discipline, we can hone our written communication to the point where our mess-ups reduce to somewhere near zero. It's also possible to get to near-zero with our verbal communication, but it's a bit more challenging.

The biggest challenge to reducing mess ups with our verbal communication is the necessary change in the way we talk to each other. Most dialogue proceeds a bit like ping-pong. One person talks - ping - the other, with little pause, talks back - pong. Now, sometimes, in a simple exchange between colleagues, where the dialogue is more on a personal or general level, that's OK. But when it comes to more serious matters, the ping-pong process is fraught with danger. And the danger can come whether we're talking to a boss, a co-worker, a customer, or an employee. But there's a simple fix here.

Don't pong when you're pinged.

So when someone talks to you, whether asking a question, or stating a fact that asks for some sort of response, learn to pause before answering. Sounds pretty simple. And it is. But unless you already do this as a matter of course, you may find - no, likely will find - that it takes some doing. I'm not sure why, but it seems most of us are wired to pong to incoming pings.

And a heads-up with this: It'll likely feel odd, maybe uncomfortably so, to pause after someone pings. The thing is, most of the time the other party will likely not even notice the pause. Best case, they figure you're actually listening to what they said and giving it serious thought - not a bad result.

Quick spiritual connect re communication, especially verbal: If we Catholic men at work read the Gospels each day, we've likely noticed something of Our Lord's verbal communication. There's not a lot of ping-pong going on there. Whether initiating a comment or responding to others, He's pretty much speaking in a clear, measured manner. 

Now consider: One of our important goals in life is to think, speak, and act more and more like Jesus Christ (Who gives us our best possible example to emulate). So taking some time to observe Our Lord and try to be more like Him will be our very best method to improve our communication.

So that's a quick survey and overview of communication mess-ups. A few more next time...