Out Back

In an average week, I think we often deal with things that could be called double-edged swords. These are of course the things that could either be good or bad; positive or negative.  I've had a couple of conversations lately that have really reinforced this around the openness and honesty that people use in their day to day conversation.

A couple of months ago, Sara decided she wanted to do something with the patio behind our house. She got an estimate for concrete work from a contractor that was working in the area. When we talked about the work and the amount of the estimate, we decided to look for another option. I know a gentleman who has done concrete work for my company for decades. His work is always top notch, and the fact that I've seen the way that his work stands up over the years told me that he is someone I'd be glad to have do work for us.

With that in mind, I called him. The project wasn't a big deal, only a yard or so of concrete. It's the kind of job that if you know what you were doing, there's an opportunity to make a little quick cash. 

When we finished catching up, and then talked about everything, he said, "Well Jim, you lost me at Out Back."

I'd told him that the work was "out back," behind our townhouse. He explained that he had decided somewhere along the line to be semi-retired and didn't take jobs any longer that involved moving concrete further than the truck could take care of it.

I have to tell you, I have never been rejected and felt better about it. I appreciated the fact that he was just honest and straightforward and told me how things were from his perspective. He could have gone the other way, told me a little story, or led me on with the idea that maybe he could get to it but that he was really busy, but he did none of this. He just told me the facts, from his perspective. I liked that approach.

Now fast forward to this week. I've had the opportunity to see both approaches to this kind of situation. The first is just wonderful. I called a company that repairs RVs as I need to get some work done. He was delightful, very nice, and explained to me that with the number of campers and RVs at the State Fair right now, this was his "Black Friday." As much as he would like to help me, unless I was on the State Fair grounds, there was no way he had time to get at the work I needed done. He also told me that he'd love to take care of the issue, and that if I could wait until after the fair was over, he'd be more than happy to come and take a look. I came off the phone call laughing, so appreciative of the honest, straightforward approach that he took. And heck, I can appreciate that when you are in the middle of whatever is your BIG time of the year, you take advantage of it.

Now, contrast that with another example from this week. 

I've been trying to get someone to look at an alarm system for a month now. The alarm has been going off intermittently, of course, most often in the middle of the night. I believed that I had scheduled someone to come out and look at this two or three times already, each time with nobody coming or calling. So, yesterday, I nailed down a plan whereby I would make sure to be in the office instead of out and about, and agreed to meet the service tech at eight o'clock in the morning. That time came and went. An hour and a half later, I called to see what was going on. I was met with a surprised response. The person I was talking to thought that the tech had already been there. Interestingly enough, a few minutes later someone showed up. They took a look at my system and declared that I had suffered a lightning strike and they would have to order a new board. As an interesting aside, I had been told weeks ago that they could see in the system that this is what had happened and they would need to order a new board.  I thought that today was the day that this would be installed, but instead today was just the day to look at it and make sure the right thing was ordered. Apparently there were a many examples of double meaning words in this whole conversation.

I prefer landing on the side of that double-edged sword that deals with honesty and openness. It's so much easier to have respect for the person you're dealing with.

On a final note, those of you that are heading for the Iowa State Fair, have a blast.  It looks as thought there are a lot of really great things going on there, and of course, the food is not to even be believed.  Gather friends, eat, drink, and have fun.