Posing The Question

I don't give a good **** what you know... I'm gonna torture you anyway

So Lt Columbo's application for the KM team went through fine. There is still some debate about Mr Blonde however. His loyalty & tenacity are admirable but he lacks something in the people skills department. He is certainly a passionate self-starter but we have a strict policy on ear removal here & he didn't follow it. In the end it comes down to results and he failed to identify the rat. Loser. And also Michael Madsen was better looking than me in 1992.

There has been some debate in the US regarding "interrogation techniques". Let me just say that waterboarding should not be used in Lessons Learned workshops unless absolutely necessary (may be I've watched too many seasons of 24).

Questioning is skill that few people master properly. The basic fact of the matter is that people lie - or rather they do not tell the truth. In answering a question, the priorities generally are:
1. What do I think makes me look good.
2. What does the other person want to hear.
3. What might the facts support.

For example, a friend of mine was in a loss review with an account team. When asked to provide a reason for the loss, the account manager began to say "Because the price was too hig-" just my friend (who is responsible for pricing) pointed to a graph that indicated their prices were the lowest in the marketplace. Hmmm - time for a new story. There is an old adage that a bad workman blames his tools. It is more acccurate to say that any workman blames their tools when their manager's boss asks.

When trying to do a lessons learned exercise, indirect questions that focus on events rather than individuals are preferable. Multiple, diverse points of view also provide a reality-check.

This also impacts the validity of survey data. People lie in surveys. Or rather I have lied in surveys. And I am extrapolating this survey sample of one to the entire population. Surveys may provide indicators of what people would like to believe about themselves or what they think you want to hear but caution is required.

I like data that indicates what people actually do rather than what they say they do. And as Gavin indicates virtual environments provide lots of opportunities for data collection. But be careful - people are canny. You don't need words to lie...

N.B. We are still reviewing Dr House's application. We fear that we will get cast in the role of exasperated yet supportive boss - and that's nowhere near as much fun as being the know-it-all jerk.