JS Tip 502: Reality Check I: Credibility Demands Specifics

The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard foresaw our time: In 1981, he said we were moving to a time of “hyperreality” in which fact and fiction would become so entwined it would be impossible to tell the difference, impossible to separate the true from the false—or the mistaken.

Wow. Prophetic.  

So how do we separate the true from the false—or the mistaken?

This will be the first of a short series.  

A Beginning: Credibility demands specific support. 

Let’s suppose one of your managers writes a glowing performance review of one of his line workers. In that review, he writes, “Sofia’s behavior wholeheartedly supports our corporate values.” 

And that’s it. 

Nothing else.

Your response must be, “How? How does Sofia’s behavior wholeheartedly support the corporate values? I need specifics. Give me specifics. Generalities are not enough.”

So the manager follows up with— 

In October alone, Sofia earned four corporate stars for outstanding customer service.

She submitted three improvement suggestions and received a bonus for one of those suggestions which will save the company $8,200 a year. She trained three new hires to operate the highly complex NCC-1701.

There. 

Now you’ve got it. The specifics support and give credence to the generality. We believe the generality because of the specifics. Otherwise, the generality is empty and meaningless.

We’ll continue the discussion next week. We love this stuff.