On the topic of questions and answers

Image courtesy of pixabay / qimono

I have in recent years had the pleasure (and just the fact that I call it a pleasure, shows how far I have moved me in recent decades) to scratch the surface of the subject of psychology a bit. And in this context, I encountered some of the smartest stuff I've ever had the pleasure to hear. In all its simplicity:

Don't think you know the answer before you have heard the question.

It sounds so simple, because it is so obvious. But try to think about it: How often isn't it that we try to solve the problems of our friends, colleagues, family members and acquaintances, seen from our own point of view? How often isn't it that we try to address such situations based on the approach "I have tried the same myself"? In fact, I am convinced that this kind of situation should rather be addressed using additional, more detailed questions. By allowing the other party to answer the additional questions will probably make the person wiser about his or her own situation and thereby answer the big question on his or her own - and thereby, more is achieved than by oneself trying to deal with something that one does not understand the full extent of.
(Translated from Noget om spørgsmål og svar, originally published October 7th, 2012)

On the topic of decisiveness

Recently, I saw an interesting video, where Daniel Pink in a "Pinkcast" in less than one and half minutes gave some good advice on how to make better decisions on your own.
The recommendation originally came from Chip and Dan Heath's book "Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work", and I found it so interesting that it immediately drew me towards an internet bookstore.
In all simplicity: if you need a good decision, one should simply think: what advice would I give a good friend, if he came to me and asked me for advice in relation to the same dilemma?
It turns out that in this way, if one is able to free oneself from the tangle of emotions that often accompany the big decisions, one is messing with, it is possible to make better decisions.
Much good can be achieved if one can get away with cheating oneself with a laudable purpose.
(Translated from Noget om beslutsomhed)

What can I do for you today?

When this post was originally written, I had recently written about psychopathy and management in a way that would make would think I experienced it on a daily basis, despite the fact that this is not the case. So therefore I found it appropriate to provide an example of the opposite; the best CEO I have ever met and had the pleasure to work for.
He was brought into a company in which I was then employed, with what was later understood as the agenda to sell the business to the highest bidder. He was presented to the rest of the company in an information meeting called for in a flash - and the meeting started with this one strange man going around to all the staff, greeting and shaking hands with all hands. After this he told us who he was, a little about his history, and what he stood for - ending up in the mantra:

What can I do for you today? 

And actually, he succeeded - by taking the first step and practicing his mantra, by highlighting that management did whatever it could for the employees, as far as it was within his power - to make practically the entire company operate in the same way; to meet each other in the offices with a spirit of "what can I do for you today?"
And finally - when the company actually found a buyer, and probably about one-sixth of the company's employees refused to sign a new contract that gave the new owner the intellectual property rights to virtually any idea that the employees would to get at work or in the leisure time, awake or asleep, it was he - personally - who were able to make ends meet. Because everyone knew he was a man whose word was to be trusted.
If anything, there is certainly a phrase that I have brought with me from there to remember to this very day. It may well happen that I do not often speak it out verbatim. But I try my best to live the spirit of it.
(Translated from Hvad kan jeg gøre for dig i dag?, originally published September 16, 2010)