As I walk along..

This happened recently on an international flight. Not long after take off, a sick bag was found in the plane toilet bearing the letter “BOB”. The pilot when informed of the situation thought that the word could mean “bomb on board”. So with the safety of the passengers on board in mind, the pilot made a decision to turn back to the original airport and the plane was subject a full security check. During the period the airport was on full security alert. It turned out that it was a hoax.
The word “BOB” could have been interpreted simply as “best on board” or simply the name of a person “Bobby” at other times.

This brings to one important aspect of interpretation. Our interpretation of an issue is very often influence by the environment we live in and also by the state of mind we are in. Sometimes, in a hurry, we said a few words to others thinking that the message had been conveyed only to find out that the other party had interpreted the other way. The same applies to us. We often misinterpreted other’s intention when communication is not done properly or precisely. It pays to communicate in a clear and uncertain manner.

Some times back, one of the business division needed to evaluate their existing operation status and to look for ways forward. So the manager appointed a panel of six consultants each of them work on two or three areas of the operations. Upon completing their tasks, the consultants submitted their reports detailing their findings and recommendations. However, the property section was not entirely sure whether to adopt all or some of the recommendations. So a further three consultants were appointed to review the reports submitted by the six consultants. Eventually, three consolidated reports were produced. These three reports also included comments and recommendations of the three later consultants. At this stage, the property section become more confused and there were then a total of nine reports each containing their own findings and recommendations. To overcome this mess, a tenth consultant was then appointed to review all the reports with the aim of producing a grand summary report. The grand report was to state in no uncertain term what needed to be done and how the property section was going to do it. Eventually the final summary report by the tenth consultant was accepted. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of consultant fees had been paid. A contract tender document was then drafted to procure a contractor to implement the grand findings. When the tender document came up for review, it was found that the scope of work was rather inconsistent and a new document had to be redrafted. Meanwhile, the business division had all the consultants’ reports stacked up on the shelves to become part of their division’s library collections.