Dave Thomas (not his real name), a qualified attorney, attended the Session, ‘Got the Message?’ as part of a longer residential management development program. The Session teaches the principles and techniques of Effective ‘Face-to-Face’ Communication. He recounted the following story.
“Before joining the company (our Client), I spent some time in general practice. My particular responsibility was dealing with compensation claims that employees brought against their employers. As part of that activity, I had to obtain detailed statements from claimants so that I could ascertain the relevant facts. I would invite the person concerned into my office and conduct a confidential interview.
But there was a, regularly occurring, problem. Although, I consider myself pretty skilled in questioning techniques and however long I spent with a claimant, I was, often, dissatisfied with the resulting information. For some reason, claimants seemed reticent to tell me what I needed to know. It, usually, meant setting up a second meeting before I felt I had got all the information that I needed.
I mentioned the problem to a more senior and experienced colleague. Her advice was simple. Rather than invite the claimant into the office for a meeting, visit the claimant’s home and conduct the discussion there.
I decided to try the home visit approach, on my next case. The results were quite remarkable. I was able to get all the information that I needed and in a much shorter time. The quality of the information was so much better and the use of my time was greatly improved. I decided that it was well worth doing some research, to find out why. Consequently, I enlisted the aid of a number of earlier claimants and asked them a series of pertinent questions.
I discovered that, for some people, visiting an attorney’s office represented a real ordeal. Claimants were going out and buying new suits and getting their hair cut, believing that by looking more ‘formal’, they might, better, fit in with the environment of the attorney’s office. Once there, the unfamiliar surroundings made them feel really intimated; and then having to cope with all the questions, put them very ill at ease. The claimants’ genuine discomfort made getting answers to my questions very difficult. By conducting interviews in the claimants’ homes, where they felt relaxed, I was able to obtain all the information that I needed and in a much shorter time.”
And so, what is the significance of this story? The fact is that we, all, look out on the World, through our own personal and unique ‘Window’. This ‘Window’ is, of course, entirely conceptual. It is made up of four powerfully influencing indices that are your Environment, Education, Beliefs and Experience. It is, commonly, referred to as your ‘Frame of Reference’.
Every message, whether verbal or written, that goes in, or comes out through your personal ‘Window’, is filtered and interpreted by these four key indices. They determine what each message, actually, means to you.
The better understanding that the two parties, engaged in a communication transaction, have of each other’s Frame of Reference, the easier and more effective is the communication.
By visiting claimants, in their homes, Dave was, more closely, aligning himself with their Frames of Reference; specifically, the claimants’ Environment.
‘It is the province of knowledge to speak; it is the privilege of wisdom to listen’
(The Poet of the Breakfast Table – 1872)
Dave Thomas’s home visit interviews added to the DNA of the following Training Package.