Musings at Altitude

In my 27 years of learning (still have at least 27 years more of learning to do) through both direct and indirect experiences in business life, I’ve come to the conclusion that “you got to be kidding me” is an ineffective response to irrational business decisions.  Instead, a better response is, “why did you take that path?” or “what led you to that decision?”  In either of those latter responses, the focus is shifted from the astounded person wondering why the decision was made to the person who may have made that decision.  In shifting that focus, the individual then assumes responsibility for explaining the unexplainable while the astounded person is nothing more than an inquiring mind.

By moving from statements to questions, the inquirer will typically look smarter than they are and the inquiree will end up working way too hard to explain the unexplainable.  Both sides will thus learn.  The one posing the questions will get lessons in human behavior from the actions that led to the somewhat insane decision.  The one answering the question will often times be enlightened by the things overlooked or the data that was misread that might have led to the otherwise absurd action.

PS.  Every now and then (ok, more often than every now and then), by asking a question instead of rushing to an erroneous conclusion I actually do a course correction on my own thought process just moments before I become very embarrassed for jumping to the wrong conclusions.  By asking the questions, I buy me time to gain enlightenment rather than accelerate my path to obvious and confirmed ignorance.