For some years I was involved in a premiere brand international motorcycle franchise. One of the strange yet interesting challenges I came across almost all the time was when employees offered unrealistic service promises to customers. Whether it was a promised delivery time or the qualities or capabilities of the products, the availability of product or whatever, it all had the same effect. I’m sure they were thinking they were doing good by being enthusiastic ambassadors of the brand and its products and in so doing hopefully securing a deposit towards a sale, but it inevitably turned toxic when we clearly could not deliver what was unrealistically promised.
The disappointment and disillusionment of the failed expectations of the customer was very often, in fact almost totally irredeemable.
As a consequence I used to coach employees to rather under promise and over deliver – rather tell the truth as the reality of the situation would dictate it regardless how bleak or frustrating it might be and then hopefully surprise them if we are able to exceed this somehow.
What amazes me is how this same problem seems to saturate our thinking in almost every arena of our lives.
I constantly hear people trying to communicate their full commitment to something by declaring that they are 110% committed.
A: “So, are you in?”
B: “Absolutely! I’m 110% committed”
A: “Are you sure this will work?”
B: “totally, I’m 110% sure!”
Sometimes I have even heard people say that they are 1000% committed. It would seem that the higher the number the greater the commitment.
Now again, I believe that we are not usually being intentionally devious, untruthful or misrepresentative, but the actual state of affairs is that this is exactly what is being done (devious misrepresentation and falsitude) and the consequences are usually devastating when the promised performance is not adequately met. Sadly, this is common marketing practice.
Many times people can see that what we promise is undeliverable yet on principle they will hold us to it and the results are never pleasing or helpful to anyone.
As unnecessary or obvious as it may seem perhaps we need to remind ourselves that 100% is 100%.
It is accepted that 100% is synonymous with everything – it represents the total package, all there is, the full monty.
The way I see it is that logically we only are what we are and we only have what we have. We have no more and no less. Whatever we have, regardless of its comparative relationship to what others may or may not have, is our 100%. It is therefore impossible to have more (or less) than 100%.
Strangely, in our present world we who are so educated, so enlightened, so scientific, so rational, seem to have shifted our reality to include an excessively dominant realm of make believe and the strangest thing is that the illusion is so effective that many I have spoken to of this don’t, can’t or won’t see this.
As a consequence this form of thinking seems to have entrenched a norm to over promote ourselves rather than to honestly and accurately represent our standard of production or ability in any given situation. In marketing ourselves or our product we tend to inflate our abilities, to over sell, to expand on even the limited qualities or aspects of the products we have created or are trying to sell.
110%?
Where on earth did we get the extra 10%? It seems to have been created out of thin air.
This might seem trivial but in fact, it’s probably the primary reason why the whole world is facing what could be the greatest economic, social, political, cultural, meltdown in recorded history (if you want to find out more Google “fractional reserve monetary banking system” or check out one of my previous blogs at http://wp.me/p10VG6-3d)
In our quest for understanding of the reality around us have we somehow been led astray to wittingly or unwittingly create a totally new unreal reality? A reality that defies rational, logical, scientific thought, or even simple reasonable validity? A reality that defies honesty, integrity, perhaps even truth? And have we somehow shifted standards to accommodate this new unrealistic reality?
Could this be as true of the spiritual aspects of our belief systems in our world as it is for our thinking and activities in the so called natural world? One would think that the accumulation of more and more knowledge about ourselves and our world would have moved us in the opposite direction. Somehow it appears that this is clearly not the case.
In seeking to be wise have we merely succeeded in becoming fools?
And in seeking to be spiritual have we merely succeeded in becoming fleshly, carnal, locked into a boxed world of make-believe?
the faithful skeptic 