How do you get to know someone really well? Think about this for a while. How many of us got to understand anybody, particularly someone we know intimately, by asking a ton of pre-set questions? Think of how you found the special someone who means a world to you, how did you come to find them among a ton of other persons? Did you go around asking all of them the same list of questions?

Yet we find in business the default mode is to create a questionnaire and go find a bunch of people to ask those questions….and voila! We believe that we understand and know them well when the questions are all answered.  Have we? What about the times when someone has asked us a question and the answer was not this or that but was more nuanced, what would be put down as our answer?

The point I wish to make is sometimes it is better just to observe the person before and without even asking a question. You may understand a lot better what to ask when you have lived in their environment for a while. It is a pity that some persons do not consider this to be true – true market research. How much we miss because we are too busy rushing to ask a question.

Next time you wish to understand someone observe more than you talk or ask. Take a bottle, any bottle, and realize how much more you “see” by just spending more time looking at it. The same principles apply to understanding people. It has a big fancy name in research – ethnographic research – so maybe more people would try it if we call it that instead of observation. Open your eyes!

Written by Noble Philip, Chairman. November 26th, 2014