‘Because’ is a magic word in business
Effective business is all about communication. And I think there’s an area where many people make fatal mistake. They are talking too much about ‘what’, and skip the ‘why’.
Let’s imagine three different situations.
Situation 1. You need a colleague to do something.
You are a project manager and you go to your developer to help you with some urgent report data for your management meeting.
How do you approach them?
“Hey Paul, could you query our database and give me latest data on X?”
What Paul actually hears:
“A manager asks for a favor, so I will finish my current task, and will do the report in a few hours”.
vs
“Hey Paul, could you query our database and give me latest data on X, because I have a management meeting in an hour and that would really help me to prove a point to the CEO”.
See the difference? It’s not only about urgency or priority, it’s about Paul to feel important and participate in the cause of you potentially doing an important task.
Situation 2. You need to manage client’s expectations.
Imagine you’re a photographer, and after a photoshoot you’re telling the client:
“Ok, so I will upload the photos and send you within a week”.
What client actually hears:
“A week to upload the photos? What will take so long?”
vs
“Ok, so I will upload the photos and send you within a week. Could be earlier, but will take longer because I will spend time on carefully picking and retouching the best shots.”
Now you not only give the reason for taking the time, but also show the client that you’re a professional and really want the best results for them.
Then if you over-deliver on that timing — it’s even better.
Situation 3. You need to prevent a disaster from happening.
Imagine you’re a developer and need to convince the managers to invest in backups.
“Hey guys, I’ve found an awesome tool that would help us to perform backups more effectively. It costs only 99 USD/month.”
What managers hear:
“Another 99 USD, our expenses are too high already…”
vs
“Hey guys, I’ve found an awesome tool that would help us to perform backups more effectively. It costs only 99 USD/month. Because otherwise we are not 100% sure if backups succeed and can be easily restored.”
This one is especially powerful: “because otherwise”. People usually tend to delay actions if the consequences are not that bad.
It also reminds me of a Xerox Mindfulness Experiment performed in 1978.
Researchers approached a total of 120 adults about to make copies (each confederate approached about half of the subjects). The confederate asked one of three questions:
- Request only. “Excuse me, I have 5 (20) pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”
- Placebic information. “Excuse me, I have 5 (20) pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make copies?”
- Real information. “Excuse me, I have 5 (20) pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”
Results:
1. 60% said Yes.
2. 93% said Yes.
3. 94% said Yes.
2 vs 3 difference is irrelevant in these case — both phrases used the word “because”, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.
So, next time, when you need someone to do something, tell them not only the facts, but some reasoning on why it needs to happen.
Actually, it can be applied not only in business, but in any relationships — people understand each other better, when they know the context of ‘why’.
