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You Assumed Wrong ...
July 28, 2020
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Have you ever been a part of one of these assumption scenarios or know someone who has?
- At checkout time at a grocery you walked up and stood behind someone in a long line and watched another person walk right up to the cashier adjacent to your line. You assumed there was a reason everyone was in the long line and never bothered to look elsewhere.
- You were next in line for a promotion and when it came open you never said a word and assumed management would offer it to you. Instead someone else got the job and you found out that person pursued the opening aggressively. You assumed and lost out.
- You found someone to build your website. Once it was done, you had a hard time getting in touch with the person to make content changes. You assumed the web builder would always be easily available. You never bothered, they didn’t offer, or you did not know to ask them to build your site in a way that would allow you to make simple changes (Content Management System/CMS).
Radio Related Assumptions:
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask...
Regardless of age or the length of time in radio, the knowledge base varies. Never be embarrassed to ask a question about something you assume others know and you don't. You assume the nodding of heads in the meeting means everyone understands but you -that’s not always true.Radio Is Not My Hobby ...
When asked “what business are you in”, I say, "Radio," often the comeback is, "Cool, so what else do you do?" They say it as if radio is one of my hobbies. Many people can't conceptualize that radio is a business and assume it’s something I do on the side.He Thought Everyone Understood ...
I remember a situation where other air personalities were coming to me for an explanation of what our Program Director (PD) was saying in memos. These were smart people, but I had worked with the PD elsewhere and understood that his well-written directives read like great literature instead of simple explanations. I can still hear myself saying, "He meant to say, do this going into a commercial stopset." That PD assumed the entire air staff understood his memos.The Client Wasn’t Your Friend …
That’s a good assumption until there is a paid remote and the station salesperson is not there to handle client complaints. If you are alone and can’t get in touch with anyone, just listen and do not offer a solution to anything out of your control. If you say something and can’t back it up, you’ll find out the friendly client was just that, a client.My Favorite Non-Radio Assumption Story ...
Starting today, never again assume or leave anything up to interpretation. You don’t want anyone to have to assume a thing. Assumptions can lead to misinterpretation. Author Mike Schinkel gave one of the funniest examples of an assuming I’ve ever read:“Your granddaughter’s mother told me you taught her to cut an inch off each end of a pot roast before cooking. She swore it was a requirement, but I’m dying to know why? Is there any sane reason to throw away two inches of perfectly good meat in order to cook a pot roast?"
Laughing, the grandmother said, “Oh, heaven’s no! You see in those days we were very poor and didn’t own much cookware. I cut the ends off the pot roast so it would fit in my only pan!”
Enough said.
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