Last week was about Lies of P and scoping out a situation.  This week is about being open to suggestions from anyone and anywhere.

I was fighting the Rabbit Brotherhood, and had died multiple times.  No matter what I did, I was just too slow, and my stamina was too low to get in more than 1 or 2 attacks at any given time.  I was super frustrated.  Alice watched me do the boss battle a few times and she said, “It looks like your character is over capacity. I think that’s making you slow.”  I didn’t even entertain her comment.  I told her she was wrong.  I explained that I’ve played multiple games in this genre, and she just wasn’t right.  I bet you see where this is going.  Sure enough.  I was over capacity, which made me slow.  I fixed that problem and easily won that fight.  If only I would have listened sooner.   

What does this have to do with anything?  In the above story, I instantly discounted what Alice said, because I assumed she didn’t know enough.  She didn’t have MY experience and expertise, so there was no way that her thoughts were valid.  Have you ever done this with someone at work?  I know I have.  Maybe it was the new team member, and you told yourself they didn’t know enough yet.  Maybe it was a cross-functional partner, and you wrote them off because they had stepped out of their lane.  Maybe it was someone you had disagreed with before, so you just assumed everything they said was wrong.

While it’s true that Alice did not have the expertise or experience that I had, this doesn’t mean that her ideas were instantly invalid.  She was able to use her observational skills to see something I had missed.  I’m not saying that I should have instantly accepted her thought.  I am saying that I should have at least been open to it.  If I would have been open to it, I would have seen she was right.  In a similar way, when we hear something from someone at work who is less tenured or maybe doesn’t have our expertise, we don’t have to automatically agree with them, but we should be open minded enough to hear them out and give their thoughts a chance. 

The challenge: How will you stay open to suggestions from anywhere and anyone?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry