Growing up, I loved the game of Telephone. It was always funny to hear how “The sky is blue” can somehow turn into “Johnny likes to eat ants.” (I’m pretty sure someone did that on purpose…)
But in the Salesforce world, such miscommunication can have real world cost or revenue implications if the wrong thing is done. But making sure the “real” or final request is maintained can be hard when:
The original requester explains it to….
A Salesforce admin who brings in…
A Salesforce Business Analyst who…
Writes it up in a ticket with a specific structure that…
Gets reviewed and poked at on a sprint planning call to get…
Coded by developers who…
Send it to QA for testing…
Before UAT testing is done…
And code actually gets deployed that hopefully meets the business requesters “real” need.
UFF Dah.
On a call the other day, I got the greatest compliment from a business requester you can give someone in the Salesforce world: “You correctly listened to and understood my needs, and were able to explain it to another technical group.” Because in the Salesforce game of telephone, you want “The sky is blue” to still be “The sky is blue” at the end.
SO WHAT?
This week, I want you to practice ACTIVE listening. When someone is speaking to you, don’t think about what you are doing next – be PRESENT in the moment. No not thinking about Christmas presents, but present as in right there with the person you are talking to.
Listen to what they are saying to comprehend them. Repeat back your understanding to make sure it’s correct. This will make sure everyone is on the same page.
The best part? This will help you both personally AND professionally! Make sure you know the sky is blue… and no one is eating any ants!
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