A lesson from Scotty

Corporate Life

Today's rant is about responsiveness and getting back to people. How many times is it necessary to call someone to get them to respond to my inquiry? What can they be doing that makes them so busy that they can't return my call or e-mail? I've been waiting days for that dealdesk to get approved! I'm sure you've heard these before. But in my role, I'm just as often on the receiving end of these calls/e-mails, as I am the originator. As I've blogged about below, there's a delicate balance between responding to every transaction with the utmost urgency, and keeping your sanity in a highly connected, online world. So what is one to do? Today's blog is about setting the appropriate expectations, then meeting or exceeding them.

The all-time king of setting expectations has to be Scotty. You don't have to be a Star Trek fan to know that when the Dilithium crystals were fried, and the reserve energy was gone, that the guy to get things done was Scotty (random

Clavin-ism - the actor who played Montgomery Scott "Scotty" was a Canadian; he was born James Montgomery Doohan in Vancouver). But Scotty's gift wasn't that he could fix anything - we all know he could put McGyver to shame. No, what Scotty did was set the appropriate expectations with Captain Kirk, or whomever was in charge on the bridge. Sure, it's going to be tricky retrofitting those crude Dilithium crystals from the Elaan of Troyius' necklace, but the appropriate thing is setting the right expectation. Will it work? Probably. When can you get it done? Before we die. In the end of course, Scotty gets the crystals hooked up to the anti-matter injector, they are able to fend off the Klingons, and everyone is happy (and alive).

So back in the 21st century, the thought I'm trying to instill here, is that we all can't get back to everyone as quickly as they (or we) would like. But rather than leave things hanging (or create false expectations), we can easily set the stage for the timing of whatever transaction is at hand. I'll gather the information over the next few days, so will be able to get back to you Monday. I'm booked solid today, but have some time to talk at 9 am tomorrow. I don't have the answer for you, but will pass this onto {name} and have cc-ed him on this note. How simple is that? By setting the right expectations with the people we interact with, we can lower our individual anxiety levels, and work towards improving our quality of life. Thanks Scotty.

James Doohan: March 3, 1920 - July 20, 2005

Originally Posted on: Nov 08, 2007