The Adventures of Rock 'n Roll Guy and Military Man

"The meeting starts at 2:00pm."

That's pretty clear isn't it? How could anybody possibly misunderstand such a simple message? Enough of this mumbo-jumbo about developing communication skills, people just need to start caring and do their jobs!

One of the heroes in today's story is Military Man, who used to be in the US Army, as was his father before him. When his family went on a camping trip, they'd get four or five families together and drive in convoy with cars and trucks pulling trailers. In the military, if you were going to leave at 8:00am, then with synchronized watches, you would all start your engines at precisely 8:00am, not a second later, not a second earlier, so as not to betray your position to the enemy. Military Man valued this precision, and applied this even in his family life. When Military Man said something would happen at 8:00am, then it bloody well was going to happen at 8:00am, sharp!

Our other hero, Rock 'n Roll Guy, used to play keyboards in a rock band with Mark, Mark and Mike. Before a gig, everyone would agree to meet at Mike's house at 7:00pm so they could get to the gig on time. Now everyone in the band knew that this was Rock 'n Roll time, which meant "show up some time between 7:00pm and 7:30pm and we'll load the van and get going sometime after that."

We join our heroes on the day of the big meeting, the one scheduled for 2:00pm. Military Man is there at 1:45pm, scouts out the terrain, picks a chair strategically one third of the way down the table, and has his materials out and ready, prepared to kick off the meeting at precisely 2:00pm. Rock 'n Roll Guy shows up twenty minutes late and he figures he's a bit early. When Rock 'n Roll Guy immediately zips out to "refill his coffee before the meeting starts", Military Man goes postal.

We all understand words differently, and bring different interpretations based on our experiences and values. Even something as simple as "when does the meeting start" is actually a pretty difficult thing to get agreement on. Operational definitions are useful here, specific criteria, tests and rules that everyone can use to determine if they're on time or not. Perhaps the operational definition for "on time" might be, "when the digital clock in the meeting room indicates 2:01, anyone in their seat, with materials on the table in front of them, cell phone already turned off, and prepared to start immediately, is on time." I'm not saying this is the right definition of on-time, or whether it's fair or reasonable, but it is a definition that all can work with. There's a test, a criteria and rules, that anyone can use to figure out if they are on time.

Communication of ideas isn't trivial, no matter how simple the idea might seem. Operational definitions can help.