“Well, you could do it this way or you could do it that way. If you do it this way, this is how you will do it and it will mean this. If you do it that way, you’ll do it this way and it will mean the other thing. Do you know what I mean?” my accountant asked.
“Not really, but I don’t think that’s important. Just tell me what I’m supposed to do,” I replied wearily.
He laughed.
“Sorry. I have a tendency to get into the weeds sometimes, and I can just see people’s eyes glazing over. I have one client whose English isn’t very good, and you can imagine how fast I lose him.”
“No worries,” I said. “Listen — I trust you. Just tell me what I’m supposed to do. Give me your recommendation and let’s move forward.”
Now, regular readers of this column may remember that it wasn’t too long ago that I switched to my new accountant, and I really like him. We get along great, he’s super accessible (something very important to me) and all is well. But it’s true that sometimes instead of telling me what to do, he gives me choices that I don’t have the background or interest to weigh. We’re getting there, though, and I’m sure my feedback over time will elicit the clear recommendations I want.
Fast forward to earlier this week and I’m at the bank opening some new accounts. The woman helping me was totally East Cost, NYC-area or whatever term you want to use for someone who’s no nonsense, fast and clear. She ran through my credit card options with bullet-point efficiency.
“Do you travel much?”
“Not really — a few times a year.”
“Ok, well then I would recommend this one,” she said.
“Sounds good,” I replied, happy that I didn’t have to spend brain weighing each cards Terms and Conditions.
“I appreciate your approach,” I said. “Quick and easy.”
The contrast of these two experiences made me think about how critical proper information presentation is to getting a decision. Now, let’s stay away from the idea of getting a particular decision because that’s not my objective here — I’m not talking about cherry picking facts and figures to elicit a particular response. But your goal, when asking for a decision, should be to present the information in such a way as to facilitate a decision being reached. And that means being in — and projecting onto “the decider” — an executive mindset.
And just what is this executive mindset? What does it want and what does it despise. I believe that first off, it hates weeds, for weeds mean inefficiency, a tough slog and wasted time. Remember, the executive is the general, ensuring the army is moving in the right direction, not the one who assigns footgear.
This is, in fact, how the brain literally works:
“Most information is ‘subconscious’ — that is, the CEO is blissfully unaware of the vast, complex information that is constantly flowing inside the bureaucracy. In fact, only a tiny amount of information finally reaches the desk of the CEO, who can be compared to the prefrontal cortex. The CEO just has to know information important enough to get his attention; otherwise, he would be paralyzed by an avalanche of extraneous information.” The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind” by Michio Kaku
As the CIO, you both have information and choices presented to you and must, in turn, present information and choices to your C-suite colleagues, board and clinical department leads. Think about how you like to receive information in this sense and it will help you calibrate your content when presenting. If you don’t like weeds, as you should not, let your folks know the level of detail you want. On the flip slide, work to discern how those you are presenting to like to see their choices — how deep do they want you to go, when do their eyes glaze over?
If your goal, as it should be, is to move the organization forward, fast decisions from those who must give you the green light are critical. Present your information in the right way and you may walk away from a meeting with a clear path forward; give too many details and you may need multiple meetings before folks even know what you’re taking about. And remember this — presenting clear and concise information takes MORE work, not less. Writers know this better than anyone.
Remember, the Gettysburg Address was only 225 words; and took just over two minutes to deliver. The speech before Lincoln’s was more than 13,000 words and took over two hours to deliver. That guy’s name, I forget.
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