See no Evil Hear no Evil - win a P45

By Ray Lewis on Oct 23, 08 09:00 AM

If you've chewed over a difficult problem to the point where your head hurts like paper cuts on a boil, eventually you'll say, "sod it" and go to the pub. Unfortunately, John Smith or Mr Carling can't be consulted if you have difficult problems at work.

Unemployment rose at its fastest rate for 17 years last month, and with the economic climate showing no signs of improvement, you'll need to keep one step ahead of your co-workers if you want to avoid redundancy.

When difficult problems arise at work, much head scratching and excessive pondering will probably get you the boot for inaction. And if you act immediately without thinking the problems through, chances are things will go wrong and Doc Martins' finest will still inspect your bottom.

In reality, keeping your P45 in a filing cabinet in Personnel and not a brown envelope with your name on it involves doing enough analysis to convince your boss you have solutions to his problems, and enough graft to show you're working your nuts off towards solving them. This often results in digging yourself into a hole because you don't have all of the facts. It's not that you don't try, or give it your best; it's just that most of us don't 'see' the true problems and end up attacking the symptoms not the causes.

Some people seem to have a knack of thinking very little, and doing even less, but getting results every time. They breeze through life with ease and we hate them.
It's not that they are any cleverer, it's because when things go wrong, they know what the problems are and are therefore half way to solving them. They know because they 'see' what isn't there and 'hear' what isn't said. Their secret is not getting stuck in until they know what to get stuck into, so unless they lay pipes for a living, they don't waste time digging holes.

It's a skill we can all learn. When things go wrong and especially when the possibility of blame arises, it's almost impossible to get the truth from anyone; but body language never lies. At meetings, listen, but also watch people's reactions to what is said. It may be a shrug or an almost imperceptible tut. It may be eye contact and a slight grimace between two supervisors, or even a look of incredulity by everyone. Peoples reactions will tell you whether the speaker is victim of the Peter Principle, or his words were previously stored in a bulls bottom.

Those who reacted know something. Talk to them and try to extract the truth.
Discuss problems with other staff and watch their reactions. They may say little, but their body language will say much. You will soon learn the signs of truth or lies, fact or fiction, belief or disbelief and eventually your skill for asking the right people the right questions will identify the problems. By listening to answers and watching for visual clues, you will 'see' what isn't there, and 'hear' what isn't said.
Everyone will hate you, but it's better than the dole queue. And outside of work, you'll still get a sore head, but only after consulting John Smith or Mr Carling, not before.