Incomplete stories

This is more of a simple experience sharing or rather reflecting upon it. A few weeks ago, when I went into the office rest room, I saw an office boy who was busy cleaning the washbasins and the mirror. It was a new face and I realized that he must be a new person.  Housekeep staffing is outsourced and sometimes, these staff are rotated on a regular basis.

Suddenly I’ve heard him saying, rather very loudly, Hey.. Are you done man? I turned to see if he talked to me. No. he was not talking to me. And there was nobody around in the rest room. I was wondering what was wrong with him.

My mind was racing and thinking of various things in just a few nano seconds.

# Is he a normal person?

# whether the staffing vendor has done background check on these staff?

# What if he is abnormal and what are the risks we are taking especially with 

so many women employees etc.,

And then, I heard the sound of someone opening the door and it was another office boy who went into one of the rest room for dress change.  Then I realized that it was me who has mistaken the situation and the new office boy was actually talking to the other office boy.

Let me tweak this scenario to put into perspective in terms of what this incomplete observation could really mean.

# What if I left the rest room before that office boy came out of the toilet? I would have formed and continued to have a wrong perception that the new office boy is probably abnormal. I would not even known what I knew is incomplete and I was wrong.

# What if there is any complaint about the new office boy from the employees or anybody? I could be acting based on the perception that I already formed, a wrong perception, that I already formed and I will not be objective.

# I could have asked him directly whom he was talking to, instead of letting my mind race like a google engine only to form wrong assumptions. Had I asked, he would have just explained it. But I did not do it.

When I reflect on the above, I think it has couple of valuable lessons for us. At workplace too, we come across many such situations – escalations, complaints, incomplete stories like what is given above and it could be our own observations or someone else’s observation etc.,

What if we were to act on them without knowing the full story, a complete story? We would be grossly biased and wrong in our action and we would end up hurting someone who is not guilty.

Wrong perceptions and decisions are certainly not healthy for any organization.

So next time, when we have a situation to take decision, let us find out if what we know / what is presented to us is complete or incomplete.

As I know, there are two simple ways of checking this out.

      

      1)   Listen to both the parties of  the story

      

      2)   Look at the data to validate the story – even if the information were to come from some who is the most trusted and respected. We shall respect the individual but shall never decide without looking at the data. There can be no other better way of validating.

So have you ever come across a story that you thought was complete but later you realized that it was incomplete? How has it changed your perception later? Do share your experience. 

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                                  If yES, 

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