Is he really stupid, or am I missing something?
How simple observation can help to verify assumptions
The bank where I worked had decided to open a branch in Poland. Quality labour was beginning to be scarce in Belgium, was the official reason put forward. But with the Polish salary amounting to just one third of a Belgian salary, we all knew that savings were the real reason.
Here in Belgium, we weren’t enchanted by the prospect, but there was not much choice.
We started training young polish graduates. Amongst them, Rawek* (name changed) was to start training on a specific task, which involved comparing coupon information in our system with incoming information from the depositaries. Nothing complicated. We had a specific tool to compare dates, number of days, interest rate and coupon amount, and highlight whatever was different. Then, we could take further action to investigate the discrepancies.
But somehow, after weeks of training, Rawek was still incapable of accomplishing this task satisfactorily. Colleagues would roll their eyes when mentioning Rawek. What was management doing, hiring these incompetent people? How did he get through the screening tests?
I don’t remember how it happened, but one day, I was assigned to coach Rawek on this task.
I could see on his miserable face that his self-confidence had taken a plunge. One month of training and still he was hesitant on this simple, logical task. Mind you, my colleague who coached him was probably not the best coach.
I sat next to Rawek and asked him to show me how to work through the discrepancies. He displayed the first one, which highlighted the coupon amount. All the rest of the information was the same.
“Ummm… I’ll check the coupon dates?” he tentatively said. I was surprised. “Why do you want to check the coupon dates? They’re fine.” “I don’t know… the interest rate?”
“Rawek, the tool indicates what is different. You don’t need to check what is the same… you see, it’s highlighted in white.”
He stares at me, incredulous. I go on : “Yes, everything that’s light blue is fine, it’s only what’s white that’s different.”
He starts to smile and says : “I don’t see the difference. I’m colourblind.”
My mouth dropped open. So that was the issue. In no time, he changed the colour scheme to colours he could differentiate. And he got on fine.
Later, when I left the department, he wrote on my card
“Thanks Ornella. You are the best coach ever.”
I was inspired to write about this experience after reading Jacquline Dacres’ article Always challenge your assumptions. Thanks Jacquline ! Let’s try to understand what’s really going on before jumping to conclusions.
