What SIX word Question causes maximum introspection ?

Social occasions, Weddings, , birthdays, family gatherings and many more social occasions are a potential bumping grounds for randomly bump into someone either completely unfamiliar, remotely familiar or someone that is completely familiar but who you are meeting after a long time. After exchanging initial pleasantaries and less than 3 minutes into any such conversation with unfailing predictability pops up the SIX word question “What is it that you do”.

In the time that I grew up (which seems like awfully long ago) the answers generally ranged from Oh, I’m an Engineer, or a Doctor, a Scientist, an astronaut or if I was in luck (wonder why I never got lucky) then an Exotic Dancer perhaps.

But that was then. In today’s world it is increasingly comonplace to hear answers ranging from Chief Visionary, Opportunity creator, Digital magician, Marketing Ninja and so on.

While the answers have dramatically changed over time, it is the explanation of what it is that you are doing that is requiring increasingly long explanations. In fact, I remember spending more than 10 minutes trying to understand what exactly one individual was doing in the Software industry and still not completely figuring it out.

I think we should be encouraged to stand in front of a mirror and aks ourselves this simple question, “What is it that I do”. Before answering this question pause a moment, think how is it that you are adding value to the organisation that you are part of and then answer yourself in less than 3 minutes.

The more direct and simple is your answer, you can be reassured that you are doing the right thing. But if this question prompts you to think longer than a few seconds and takes more than a few minutes to answer then treat this as a early warning system and use this as an opportunity to introspect.

You need to understand whether what you are doing is quantifiable, can you easily identify your stakeholders and most importantly would those that you believe you are adding to have exactly the same opinion about you.

No matter what it is you do, the outcome of your efforts must be easily explainable and objectively quantifiable. You must add value to either your internal or external stakeholders and in an ideal case to your Internal as well as External stakeholders.

The next time someone says that he/she is a “Thought Provoker” pause a while, politely smile, pop the SIX word question and give him/her not more than 3 minutes to explain what is it that he/she is doing. At the end of 3 minutes if the answer if not making sense then consider those last 3 minutes not very spent, move on and look for someone with whom spending the next 30 minutes is worth your while.