In this Bible and Business video series on the eight “A’s” that kill healthy, business partnerships, Bill English, Publisher of Bible and Business, explores the seventh “A”: Ambiguity. You can watch the companion video on the Bible and Business channel. Download the series slides.
[00:00:25.060] – Bill English
And welcome back. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business. I want to thank you for joining me again today. We are in the series on the eight A’s that kill healthy partners. These are eight elements that if they exist in a business partnership in any robust form, two or more or three or more, chances are they’re just going to kill the partnership.
[00:00:50.110] – Bill English
And so today we’re in the 7th of those eight A’s, and today we’re going to look at ambiguity and how ambiguity, while not nearly as serious as addictions or abuse or arrogance, can still be very damaging to a business partnership. But before we get started, I just want to ask you to head over to Bible and Business.com, take a look at the articles and the podcast there. You can also download the slides and PDF format for this broadcast. And I’ll also ask that you take a moment and subscribe to this YouTube channel for Bible and Business. Okay, our topic today is ambiguity, and let’s just go ahead and dive right in.
[00:01:33.940] – Bill English
First of all, what is ambiguity? I characterize ambiguity as a couple of different things. One is that you say one thing, but you mean another. For example, you might say, well, this is maybe to a direct report. You might say, if you’d like, you could call the customer today and see how they’re doing.
[00:01:55.610] – Bill English
What you really mean is call that customer now because we’re about ready to lose this account. That’s an example of being ambiguous. Another one is just incomplete communication. It’s what I call it. An example of this is you might say, I want you to loop me in into what’s happening here, okay?
[00:02:16.920] – Bill English
Please loot me in. And what you really mean is, please send me a daily report on how many widgets were selling. You see how the second is much more clear and to the point than the first. And what loop me in means to you and what loop me in means to your employees might be two very different things. And we’re going to talk about how those kinds of ambiguities create conflict points and really aren’t good for you or your company.
[00:02:47.850] – Bill English
Look, anytime a listener has to read between the lines or read your mind in order to know what you really mean when you say things, then you’re being ambiguous and you need to clean up your speech and frankly, become a lot more direct and open with the people that you work with. A Bible verse that I rely on here for this is Matthew 537, and this is just part of the verse, but in the Christian standard Bible, this is probably the translation I’m most familiar with. But let your yes be yes and your no be no. In other words, let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. In commenting about this.
[00:03:35.770] – Bill English
I looked at a couple of commentaries on this, and Dr. Allen here in the critical and exegetical commentary says this let your statements carry with them the assurance of their accuracy. Now, when you go back and you look at the accuracy here, let’s just take the first one for example. If you’d like, you could call the customer today and see how they’re doing, when really what you mean is call the customer. Now, when you look at that, the ambiguous statement is not very accurate.
[00:04:14.890] – Bill English
It’s directionally accurate or generally accurate, but it is not accurate in and of itself. You mean call the customer. Now we’re close to losing this account. You have a sense of urgency, but if you say, well, if you’d like you could call the customer today and see how they’re doing, then that doesn’t really communicate what you’re thinking and it doesn’t communicate the urgency that you have about it. So it’s really not very accurate.
[00:04:44.160] – Bill English
Craig Bloomberg, who is still at Denver Seminary, wrote this in his new American Commentary jesus followers should be people whose words are so characterized by integrity that others need no formal assurance of their truthfulness in order to trust them. In other words, you can trust what we say is true. You can trust what we say is accurate. But I really like what Bill Hendrickson said here in his commentary. The real solution of the problem is in the heart.
[00:05:16.690] – Bill English
In that heart, truth should reign supreme. Hence, in daily conversation with his fellow men, a person should avoid owes altogether. Instead, let him become so truthful, so thoroughly dependable, that his words are believed. When he wishes to affirm something, let him simply say yes. And when he desires to deny something, let him simply say no.
[00:05:43.460] – Bill English
Really, what we’re after here is to say that your statements have to be truthful and they have to be accurate. Coming back here on the incomplete communication, please loot me in into what’s happening. What you mean is, please send me a daily report. It’s just as easy to say something that’s accurate and clear as it is to say something indirect or ambiguous. So a couple of notes here.
[00:06:12.940] – Bill English
Ambiguity is resolved through simplicity and truthfulness. You get away from ambiguousness by becoming simply true and truthfully simple. So I like the combination of simplicity and truthfulness. You don’t have to say a lot of words. The more words you say frankly, the more you will become complex rather than simple.
[00:06:39.540] – Bill English
So say what you mean simply and directly and be truthful about it. I think ambiguity, the results of ambiguity, is gaps. It’s what I call gaps. People are wondering what was meant by what you said. And then since they really don’t have any other place to go, they’re going to act on their own interpretation.
[00:07:03.180] – Bill English
They’re going to hear it, they’re going to interpret it, and they’re going to act on their own interpretation. And where there’s gaps, they’re just going to fill in the blanks on their own, with their own experience, with what they think they ought to be doing. Maybe they’ll connect some dots with what you said earlier and they fill it in that way. But whatever it is, when you create gaps, or what I call blanks or gaps, people will wonder what you meant and they’re going to act on their own interpretation and they’re going to fill stuff in. If a whole team is trying to interpret what you said, then you’re going to create conflict on that team because different people will hear different things.
[00:07:45.340] – Bill English
Okay? And over time, ambiguous communication can create exasperation as people become tired of interpreting your ambiguous communications, whether it’s emails, whether it’s vocal, whatever. So I believe the ambiguity is resolved through simplicity and truthfulness. Now, when you stop to think about it, how does ambiguity harm a partnership? Well, the same problem which ambiguous communication creates between a manager and a direct report is also created within the partners.
[00:08:21.660] – Bill English
So the less clear a partner is, the more likely it is that the partners won’t understand what was said and they’re going to respond to it however they interpret it. And if they respond in a way that you didn’t intend, then that’s going to create a clash point. And it’s not because they are being out of line. It’s because you’ve been ambiguous and you’ve caused them to maybe act in a way that they normally wouldn’t have acted had you just been simple and clear and truthful in your communications. So a partner who is ambiguous needs to learn to have confidence in his communications.
[00:09:02.850] – Bill English
I think sometimes we’re ambiguous because we’re not sure that other people are going to accept a more clear message, or we’re not sure that we’re going to be able to walk away unscathed, or we don’t want to make them angry or something. And so we become a little bit ambiguous. So we need to overcome that internal editing, trying to guarantee a certain reaction based on how we say something. What we need to do instead is just be clear and be truthful. Be loving for sure.
[00:09:35.410] – Bill English
Because if you become too truthful and you become too brutally honest with unvarnished truth, chances are you’re going to create a whole nother set of problems that you really don’t need in life. Okay, so what is ambiguity? It’s saying one thing but meaning another, or it’s incomplete. Kind of sideways, indirect communication. The scriptures tell us to be clear and truthful.
[00:10:02.500] – Bill English
Let your yes be yes. That’s clear, it’s simple, it’s truthful. Let your no be no. It’s clear, it’s simple, it’s truthful. And resolve your ambiguity in your communications by just being clear and simple and yet truthful.
[00:10:21.580] – Bill English
And I don’t have it here on the slides, but I’m going to add loving, be lovingly, clear and simple in your communications. And that will resolve any problems that you might have with ambiguity. Next episode, we’re going to look at a person who is autocratic or autocraticness. This is a person who really lords it over everyone else. And one of the common words I think that we’ll use in the next episode is a micromanager.
[00:10:51.790] – Bill English
They’re autocratic. Okay? So that’s what we’re going to do in the next episode. And that will be the last one of this series on the AAS that kill healthy partnerships. So until we see each other again in the next episode, I want to thank you for joining today.
[00:11:08.580] – Bill English
Thank you for checking in. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business. If you’d like to get a hold of me, you can do that just by emailing me at bill@bibleandbusiness.com. Bill@bibleanbusiness.com, I look forward to hearing from you. Please drop me a line as soon as you can.
[00:11:31.470] – Bill English
Let me know how you’re doing, and let me know what you think of these videos too. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on that. So again, until the next episode, thanks for joining me and go out and make it a great day. Take care.