observe what arrived, not what you sent?
12 people in the room, 13 versions of the order
In a meeting I was facilitating, the CFO of a large bureaucracy came in to address a small group of rebels who were trying to change the university. He spoke. He left. We polled the group for what they had heard.
There were 13 different versions of the command. There were 12 attendees.
He was not a careless man. He was a chief financial officer, in front of a group that badly wanted a straight answer, and he gave one. He said it once, in a room, to people who were leaning forward. On any measure you would have called that a good communication. The room emptied and 13 different instructions walked out of it.
Are you the leader who says a thing once, clearly, and then moves on because it is obvious? When did you check what arrived, compared to what you sent?
…and the arithmetic of that is worse than it looks
Thirteen versions from 12 people means somebody left the room carrying a version nobody said. Not a distortion of the message. An invention, made in good faith, by a person who was paying attention… listening through their own filters…
That is what Compression does at the far end. A signal gets encoded so it can travel, and then it gets decoded by somebody whose settings you do not own and cannot see. The encoding is yours. The decoding never is. And the only way to find out what came out the other side is to observe it, which means asking, and then not talking…
…and the man holding the fader
Thirty five years ago today, on Sep 24, 1991, DGC released Nevermind. Butch Vig had produced it at Sound City in May. Then Andy Wallace mixed it at Scream Studios over about 9 days in June, with SSL automation, outboard Compression and some subtle EQ, and Howie Weinberg mastered it on Aug 2. On the Billboard 200 dated Jan 11, 1992, it took the top of the chart from Michael Jackson. Kurt picked Andy Wallace for his Slayer records, and Wallace’s settings are what the world heard. Every organization has an Andy Wallace. It is whoever your message passes through last before it reaches the people it is for, and you almost never know their name.
…and the man who could observe his own record…
Kurt said 2 things about that record. The first is the one everybody quotes, that he was embarrassed by the production. The second is the one worth keeping. “When I listen to Nevermind, I hate the production, but there’s something about it that almost makes me cry at times.” That is not a rejection. That is a man hearing his own signal come back through a filter he did not choose, and being moved by it anyway.
Nirvana did not start the Seattle scene. The scene was 5 years old by 1991 and had already made most of its best records. Sub Pop had been going since 1986. Mudhoney had a single out 3 months before theirs. Pearl Jam’s Ten was out 4 weeks before Nevermind. What this record did was take the top of the chart away from the biggest pop star alive, and once it did, every band already standing behind that door got let through.
That matters on an anniversary, because an anniversary is the day the story hardens. Thirty five years of retelling has Compressed a 5 year scene, its labels and its bands down into 1 album cover, and everybody involved was telling the truth the whole way down.
Watch what people say about you and then watch what actually happened, and notice how rarely the 2 line up, even when everybody involved is being honest.
Looping back to hear the real signal…
That CFO was moving fast and hard… and really wanted to change what was a dying bureaucracy. He didn’t… the signal he was sending was mis-transmitted over and over again by people that he never checked back with. Listening – for what they heard, versus what he said and meant. Looping the signal back so you know what was garbled, and what is clear.
Your “Simple… Not Easy” move: One question, 6 words, put to somebody who was in the room: what did you hear me say? Then nothing from you but the pen.
The 13 versions are already out there. Let’s observe what actually arrived, together, before your next meeting. Schedule time with me here.
Thirty five years on, the most heard piece of music of my children’s youth is still the one almost nobody stopped to listen to… Smells Like Teen Spirit
