Story about communication: How to follow instructions the right way
Some time ago a man who had worked all of his life and had saved all of his money died with a strange and difficult request to his wife.
This man was in love with his money more than with his wife. He never took his wife on a trip, dinner or movie because that would mean he would lose money. And as he started to feel weaker he started to fear what would happen to the money once he would die. So he gave the following instructions to his wife »Dear wife please listen carefully. When I die I want you to take all of my money and place it in the casket with me. I want to take all of my money to the afterlife.«
So he got his wife to promise him with all her heart that when he dies she would put all the money in the sacket with him. Just to make sure the man also made a will. And not too long the day came when the man died. On the day of his funeral, everyone he knew came to his funeral to see if he was really going to be buried with all of his money. Even the lawyer was there.
The man was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting close in black and beside her were their best friend. When the ceremony was finished, just before the undertakers were ready to close the casket, the wife said »Wait a minute!« As she was walking towards the casket she asked the lawyer who has written the will to come with her. After she took something from the shoebox and put it in the casket the undertakes locked the casket and rolled it away.
As the wife and her friend were driving home her friend said, »I hope you weren’t crazy enough to actually put all the money in the casket with that stingy old man.« The wife replied, »Of course I did as I promised. I loved him and I promised him that I would put that money in that casket with him.« With disbelief, her friend shouted, »you mean to tell me you followed his instructions and put every cent of his money in the casket with him?!«
The wife calmly and with a slight smile replied, »I sure did. I got it all together to the last cent, put it into my account and I wrote him a check, which he has next to him in the casket.«
Moral of the story:
- When you receive an unreasonable or insufficient instruction you are also left to your ingenuity to make it happen. So when you are confronted with your solution you can »return the ball« that you have achieved what you understood the instruction was.
- When you are facing a problem you think is impossible to solve take a step back and ask yourself »What am I actually solving by solving this problem?« By doing so you open up a »bigger solution space«.
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