Communication Best Practices: Probe for Underlying Issues
by Evan Hackel
When you’re talking to someone about a problem they’re encountering, be sure to dig deeper to uncover and understand the underlying issues. Because chances are the problem they have stated is actually a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.
An example of this is when someone comes to you and says, “We have a problem with our sales process, and the result is that we’re not selling as much as we would like to.” Rather than accepting that definition of the problem and its cause, it is best to dig deeper and strive to understand if the real problem lies with the sales people or the sales process, or whether there an issue with the product, marketing or something else. So you need to get to the root cause. To do this, you need to probe deeper by asking simple questions like these . . .
· Why do you think we have a sales problem?
· What are the people doing who are successful at selling this product?
· What are the people who are successful not doing?
· Are there any marketing issues related to this?
· Are there any competitor issues?
You need to keep digging down to the root cause. You also need to talk to all the people involved - people from the sales team, the marketing team, and other appropriate personnel - to really understand the underlying issues.
If you dig down to the root cause, improvement becomes much easier. If you don’t, you risk alienating your people and probably losing the talented folks who (after all!) don’t like focusing on the wrong things.
The Importance of Separating Fact from Opinion
This is a very critical issue for me. We are living in a time when many people everywhere express their opinions as if they were facts. We hear politicians do it. It has also become very commonplace on talk radio and television news.
When people speak with any level of passion or conviction, they speak as if what they’re saying is a fact. In reality, what they’re saying is their opinion. And when people state an opinion as a fact, their audience then believes it to be a fact, and reacts to it in a certain way. Most often, the conversation either ends, or never gets to the point of addressing real issues.
You might hear someone in your organization say, for example, “You cannot bring that product to market by early next year because of A, B, and C.” That person appears to be looking for solutions, but in reality he or she is stating opinions as though they were facts.
If you cultivate the habit of delineating between fact and opinion during conversations, you become more empowered to move forward toward real solutions. If you fail to do so, miscommunications often result. Imagine, for example, that you’re asking for advice about a particular issue, but that you express your opinion of that situation as though it were undisputable truth. In such a case, the advice that you receive will probably not have great merit, because the other person will not base his or her advice on a wider and more comprehensive understanding of what the situation really is.
From the other side of the equation, it is wise to cast a similarly critical eye on the information that you receive, by consistently challenging the assumption that what is being said or presented to you is actually fact. To make the most informed decisions, you need to investigate and become as certain as you can that you are considering not opinions, but the reality of what is taking place.
Now, you can’t do this with absolutely everything that comes across your desk or in every conversation. Time limitations and pressures often will keep you from probing into what you are hearing on a deep level. And you do not need to do so all the time – not when you are dealing with low-priority issues or activities, for example. But you certainly should do it when you are dealing with serious or deep issues. That’s where you’ll want to dig deeper – to look at every angle to really get to the real facts.
When you get there, you’ll realize a significant improvement in business. Fact or opinion… you decide.
Communications skills that help differentiate opinions from facts . . .
· When you are offering an opinion, precede it with the phrase, “In my opinion.” This differentiates opinions from facts. Perhaps more importantly, it raises the quality of the conversation by inviting people to contribute to your opinion, refute it, or offer productive opinions of their own.
· Ask other people, “is what you are saying a fact or an opinion?” This strategy, like the one just above, encourages others to be more alert to situations in which they are tempted to offer their opinions as facts.
· Point out when other people are presenting opinions as facts. This can be difficult to do because in a way, you are pointing out that those other people might be lying. Plus, challenging opinions can be challenging. If someone says, for example, “Your price increases are killing sales,” you should consider exposing that statement by stating that it is an opinion, not a fact. You can then explore that opinion to see if it has validity or is simply an attempt to box you into a corner or limit a productive search for information and solutions. In some cases, you will discover that the other person is simply trying to advance his or her own agenda or goals. One good choice of words is to say, “I believe . . .” (Example: “I believe that other factors could be at work too . . . let’s explore some more.”) In a non-confrontational way, those words help you address the fact that another person is expressing an opinion as though it were a fact.
· Get into the habit of looking for facts. If someone says, “Your price increases are killing sales,” you can work with that person to arrive at statistics, data, feedback, and facts that either support or refute the opinion. This elevates the quality of your conversation to a level of higher engagement.
About Evan Hackel