Following on from my other management based blogs Meet Joe, Meet Connor and Meet Barbara, wonder of wonders, another person has reared their head lately which is actually one of the most frustrating ones. Meet Beatrice. Please, please, please don’t be Beatrice.
They are the person that always has a “better” suggestion. Without realising that really, she is just talking from her own limited experience. And arguing for the justification of her own decisions.
So, the conversations will go something like this.
First Beatrice example
Someone: Hey guys I just thought of an awesome idea for an app (starts explaining very briefly)
Beatrice: It’s just like (insert similar app name here). But (similar app) is better because it does (insert different functions here)
Someone: Oh, but my app is different to that because I am trying to….
Beatrice: No I think (similar app) is better
In the above case, we’ve had Beatrice not bother to even listen to the overall pitch, and take a small brief and turn it into something different. No matter what Someone says, they will always lead the conversation back to their preferred app which is in the same genre.
A second Beatrice example might be
Someone: I think Slack is a great project management tool. It’s widely used by people the world over to help them manage their projects
Beatrice: Slack is just a chat program, (insert different program name) is better for project management. It’s the one I use.
Someone: There is more to Slack than just chat, millions of people are using it to manage projects.
Beatrice: Yes but my one that I use is better
I once heard a quote that went along the lines of “People who argue about which mobile phone is better generally have no idea what they are arguing about and actually are just justifying their own purchase”. Beatrice is this kind of person, who has used something, be it hardware, software, a camera, anything, and so therefore, that one is the best one. They’ve not really fully researched or experienced every option, but have found the one they like and therefore that is the only one that should be used by everyone.
Actually, Beatrice needs to take a step back and understand not only personal preference, but also limited understanding and knowledge. Of course they might be right, but without knowing the full picture of the alternate opinion, there is no real reason to immediately try to one up what is being presented.
So, try not to be Beatrice, understand that there are other ideas, expanded ideas, and other opinions.
