
Photo Credit: -bast- @Flickr
Last week in D.C., I learned what bitter disillusionment can do to the unsuspecting professional.
While pitching AWP’s work to an agency, we got the usual questions about who, what, when, where and why.
Yet, one particular person insisted on asking us questions to try and make us look stupid or, worse yet, useless.
When that happens, that person is not interested in finding out what you’re about. They are trying to prove a point about something that has little (if anything) to do with your work.
There are always two groups of people who gather in response to new ideas: people who love it and people who want to find reasons not to love it.
Granted, nothing is perfect.
Nor, is it meant to be.
But, if you find yourself in the latter camp – do yourself a favor: initial (and unwarranted) bias has little, if any, use.
Ask a question. A real question.
You’ll be surprised how often real questions don’t get asked. Real questions find out value. They probe for purpose and insight. The odd thing about that? People forget what they are looking for in the first place.
Therefore, they’ll meander around until they think they find out what they want to know. If you want to know about the “value” of someone’s work, ask this: Why did you create this?
Airing dirty laundry
When this happens, you lose credibility with the person you are questioning. For example, in one meeting, one of the members chose to bring attention to the fact that there are other advocacy groups and projects that campaign in the name of human trafficking (the project we were pitching).
OK – and? Is there a quota? From the gist of his not so subtle and completely hostile statement – he was doing the following:
- Airing his dissatisfaction of (what he deemed) the effectiveness of such campaigns
- Questioning the usefulness of our work
There’s very little tact in such a tactic. When you take that route – you unavoidably do this:
- Lessen the likelihood of me wanting to collaborate with you
- Cause me to question your own professional validity in the project
If you are genuinely interested in what makes someone’s work different from others (or if it makes a difference) be simple, ask: How does it work?
Apples and Oranges
Despite the fact that AWP is an arts organization – the art part is actually secondary and the social justice advocacy work is the primary definition of our projects. What’s that mean? No matter what, we can connect with lots of agencies that work in the realm of our initiatives. We create advocacy tools.
So, instead of focusing on how we’re different, let’s try: What are your goals?
Just because I am an apple and you’re an orange – we’re still fruit. So to add, ask: Who do we want to connect with?
What should you keep in mind as the answerer?
- No return volleys allowed
- Respond with a question if you are not sure what they want to know
- It’s not necessarily personal – they’re probably just bitter
- Stick to the facts
- Beggars can be choosers – you can always choose not to answer
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