Page 79 - The Voice of Authority

mination units—the meaning of the request in their typi-
cal context.
Osama Bin Laden continues to release tapes saying that
the United States brought all the terrorist attacks upon it-
self by its own actions. Yet parts of the released tapes show-
ing the terrorists’ plans for the attacks were completed at a
time when things in the Middle East were going well—just
after all parties had signed the Middle East Peace Accord.
So the very context of Osama Bin Laden’s words makes
them untrue.
Establishing context becomes even more difficult when
the framework resembles Jell-O—that is, when the context
remains fluid and flexible over a long period of time, such
as during a merger or during a long product-development
cycle. But difficult or not, context provides both the clues
and the flavor of the message.

Assume at Your Own Risk

The previous year had not been a good one financially.
While revenues had grown, our profits lagged. Primarily,
the problem centered around new sales staff coming on
board who had not met quota. Despite team training, one-
on-one coaching, and administrative support, the situa-
tion with one key salesperson had not improved. As the
cliché goes, I wanted to “light a fire under him” in one
more attempt to let him know how urgent it was that the
company see some return on our investment.
So in an all-hands “state of the company” meeting, I laid
out the financial picture, set financial goals for the coming
year, and outlined key initiatives necessary to achieve these
goals. As a wrap-up, I mentioned the total cost and over-
head each sales rep was responsible for before he or she was

Is It Clear? 67