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PollYouAreIncompetent

Spin off from DeadLinesAsCommunication

I'm curious... If it fits for you, please participate in the following poll.

S1. You overhear a conversation at work where someone you know and respect says, "_yourname_ is incompetent." And you overhear another person say, "I agree." You don't know how you know but you do know they aren't kidding.

What would be your reaction? (Add your input to the numbers below)

0 - Positive

0 - Neutral

3 - Negative

S2. You overhear a conversation at work where someone you know and respect says, "_yourname_ is competent." And you overhear another person say, "I agree." You don't know how you know but you do know they aren't kidding.

What would be your reaction? (Add your input to the numbers below)

0 - Positive

3 - Neutral

0 - Negative

SteveSmith 2006.09.01

I found myself working through this for five minutes because when I looked at Steve's answer I didn't see the letter 'S' in S1 and S2. Instead, I saw a dollar sign '$' as in $1 (one dollar) and $2 (two dollars). I thought there was some sort of scaling factor for the two questions and I was going to give a 5 to the first question and a 2 to the second question. That is, I was giving a big negative and a less neutral.

DwaynePhillips 2 September 2006

As both above, negative for S1 and neutral for S2. We're all incompetent in most things. I'd perceive the first at a political statement not a professional judgement. Now, a statement like, "You're not so good at ...", especially if one-to-one to me, I hope I would be open to as a chance to learn.

Mike Melendez 2006.09.02

Depends on how it's delivered, the individuals, the organization, the norms in that organization and team, and more, so the questions are unanswerable for me. Even so, my first reaction to the examples is to walk over to the two folks talking and say: "Hey, I'm right here. Is there something we need to talk about?" Or I might dismiss the whole thing. Or laugh out loud, and they'd laugh along with me. OR file the particular incompetence on my pile of stuff I might work on.

The examples speak more to the organization than the message. I'd be very intrested in at least, "Why is triangulating conversation OK right then?" (And sometimes it is.), "How general is the 'competence' being assessed?", and "What happens now?" -- JimBullock, 2006.09.04

Please share your answers on the TriangulatingConversation thread.

SteveSmith 2006.09.05

I don't understand. Can you tell me why you want this poll?

ED 2006.09.06

But before I took someone else's opinion of my capabilities to heart I'd have to know where they were coming from, and not only what they meant by the words. Are they in a position to assess, with adequate opportunities to observe, and the right skill set to measure mine? Do I have reason to respect their opinion? Might they have an agenda? Etc. --FionaCharles 6-Sep-2006

If, for instance, someone said, "Steve, you are an unskilled Visual Basic programmer." I would be okay with the comment. I wouldn't be okay with being told, "Steve you are incompetent Visual Basic programmer".

Re: Your questions.

I like them a lot.

SteveSmith 2006.09.08

What would be your reaction?

Laughter.

What would I care what they thought, especially if I didn't know if they thought it was good or bad that I was incompetent. Are they talking about my ability as a liar? As a lover? As a candidate for Pope?

"_yourname_ is competent." And you overhear another person say, "I agree."

What would be your reaction?

Laughter. What do I care about what other people think of my competence? What do they know, so what is their opinion worth? If a judgment of my competence is significant for some reason, I have to be the one who makes it. That's a huge part of my job as a professional - JerryWeinberg 2006.09.18