neither Sam nor Sara Deblurred those three dangerous letters: EOD. To Sara, EOD meant End of her workday. To Sam and the client, EOD meant the end of the business day (5 p.m.). To this day, Sara shudders whenever someone uses that acronym.
2. Deblurring Improves Feedback Faster
One of the most frustrating and damaging types of feedback is blurry feedback. Blurry praise like “Great job!” misses out on a learning opportunity. (What was it that made the job great?) Worse yet, blurry critical feedback like “You didn't try hard enough” is pretty much guaranteed to trigger defensiveness. Great feedback is blur-word-free. We'll dig much deeper into feedback skills in Chapter 9, but for now, if you want to rapidly improve the quality of your feedback, start by Deblurring it.
3. Deblurring Improves Decision-Making Faster
So how do you rapidly bulk up your Deblurring muscles? First and foremost, start mentally underlining the blur words you hear, read, and say. Recognition is the first step. When you notice other people's blur words, ask Deblurring questions. When you catch yourself getting blurry, stop and clarify. For example:
“This quarter our priority will be improving our customer service response time …. To Deblur what I mean by “improving” – the goal is to cut our response time in half, from an average wait time of 10 minutes to an average wait time of 5 minutes by the end of this quarter.”
Practice Station
Right now, describe someone you enjoy working with. What makes them a great coworker? Jot down your description below, underline each blur word you used, then convert them to specific language.
To hone the Deblurring BU faster, check back in with Mia's adventures in making her first hire:
Version 1
| Mia: | So what did you both think of Kofi? |
| Luca: | I like that he brings a different professional background, but he wasn't a culture fit. |
| Mia: | Oh, really? What did you think, Liv? |
| Olivia: | Yeah, I agree. He was nice, but I think we need someone quicker on their feet. |
| Luca: | Right. He was friendly, but I also got the sense that he wasn't that interested in the job. |
| Mia: | Okay. Let's move onto the next candidate, I guess. |
Version 2: Do-Over
| Mia: | So what did you both think of Kofi? |
| Luca: | I like that he brings a different professional background, but he wasn't a culture fit. |
| Mia: | Hmm. Can you share what you mean by “culture fit”? |
| Luca: | He had low energy. To be honest, I couldn't even tell if he wanted the job. |
| Mia: | Okay, so it sounds like two things: energy and interest. Is that right? |
| Luca: | Yeah, I think so. Well … I guess I felt like he wasn't all that interested because of his energy. That's probably me jumping to a conclusion. |
| Olivia: | I agree about his energy, though. He was just so mellow. |
| Mia: | Was it his talking speed? |
| Olivia: | A little bit. But he also took these long pauses before answering each question. |
| Mia: | Got it. So he speaks slower than we do and pauses longer. What do you see as the negative impact of that? |
| Luca: | Well, it makes me wonder about his sense of urgency. |
| Mia: | I think I know what you mean by “sense of urgency,” but can you clarify so we're definitely talking about the same thing? |
| Luca: | Things like responding to problems quickly, meeting tight deadlines. |
| Mia: | Was there anything else from his interview that gave you the impression he doesn't have that sense of urgency? |
| Luca: |
Well, no. Actually, he has a really impressive track
|
