I sat down this morning and started to type out my first blog. The expectation of this is that putting blogs on web pages increases traffic to the site, and thus ratings of the website will increase so that search engines will find it easier. During my creation of the blog I realized that I knew nothing of what a blog is supposed to be and what expectations readers have of blogs. Consequently the search for the blog definition ensued. Ok so here’s the definition I found: “a website that allows users to reflect, share opinions, and discuss various topics in the form of an online journal while readers may comment on posts. Entries typically appear in reverse chronological order.” As a result, the expectation is set for my first Blog.
Lately I have been thinking about Clarity. Since I was already looking for definitions, I looked up the definition of clarity too, and here is what I found: “free from obscurity and easy to understand”. And I’m still not sure if it is the correct word to describe my thoughts. But let me share some of my current thinking. We at Asyma decided during one of our Business retreats that one of our shared values is that we want to be clear about what we do, what we charge for, to discuss everything so there are few to no surprises, and thus to ensure clarity. I am 100% in agreement with this value.
From the business prospective: I have recently have had some discussions surrounding our initial proposals. I believe we are not clear in those proposals. Now to be crystal clear about everything that proposal would need to be 100 pages long or more, and who would read or sign something like that. But can we be clearer? Let’s try to put this in context or at least present the issues. First off the proposal to some is the beginning of the relationship between Asyma and the client. This document is meant to outline some options and give some sense of what the relationship will be. The clarity issue comes into play when dollar values are placed on a set of services that are not defined. Now the client wants to know what kind of cost will be incurred for such services and Asyma is hesitant to place a concrete dollar value so early in the process since the services are not fully defined. The argument can be made that you should give that number after you clearly know what the services are defined to be, and the counter argument is the amount of time invested is so large to determine that number that it is not feasible to risk taking that much time on the chance of the contract not being accepted. I agree with both points of view and am thus at a crossroads. Now during further discussion a point of view was brought up that the proposal is just the starting point and a further scope document will be developed to ensure clarity of the proposed project; but in the proposal it is not stated or clear that this is the case. Maybe making it clear in the proposal that the dollar number is a best guess and not an accurate number may suffice.
From my personal Experiences: I am an avid computer game player and even in the gaming world this clarity issue has arose. I play a game in which I lead 24 other players (real live people playing a virtual character) into an encounter, through my leadership and explanations we do what is needed to be done and at the end we are rewarded with items to advance our virtual players. So what has this got to do with clarity? Well 25 people go in and at the end we get 8 items to share (of course by share, I mean one player will get one item and from then on he/she is the only one that can use it). I have noticed that when I am not clear at the beginning of the play as to how those 8 items will be split up there are arguments when 2 or more people believe they desire an item that has been received. Amazingly when it is clearly stated at the beginning how those items will be divided up (and the process is fair) there never seems to be any argument.
I believe this is true in everything we do. When we have contracts with clients, we tend to have more disagreements at the end when the initial contracts are not clear. In our personal lives, I have issues with my wife and kids when I am not clear about what I expect of them. We usually end of fighting or upset with each other when things are not done the way I had envisioned them.
And so my thoughts end up on the question of balance. On the one side to be 100% clear, the documentation and explanations could take longer than the task at hand. Yet the outcome is close to 100% guaranteed that everyone will know what to expect. On the other hand when a situation occurs that was not clearly explained in the beginning as to how it will be dealt with then disagreements occur.
Ok I am now at the end of my first blog, or at least an ending point to the blog. As the definition states of what a blog is this is a starting point to some possible discussion. I hope that anyone reading this will put forth their thoughts and this can be an ongoing discussion.
Glenn Cryer, CMA |
