First Dumb, Then Smart

Not long ago I watched a portion of a cable nature show pertaining to sharks. Two researchers were standing waist deep in the ocean surrounded by about a dozen bull sharks. The bull sharks are commonly known for being among the most aggressive and irritable of this species. Thus, for me at least, having a dozen or so of them brushing up against my legs without any protection on my part is not my idea of a good time or a particularly smart thing to do. But these researchers were doing this as part of an experiment to test whether people and sharks can co-exist so long as nothing is done to provoke or threaten these deadly creatures. Unfortunately, even though the two men were standing very still and making a point of not behaving in any kind of threatening manner, one of them ended having a good portion of his left leg bitten off.

Looking back at this, it is very easy to label what these two men attempted to do as being dumb and completely foolish. In retrospect, they were lucky to get out of the water with their lives. Upon further reflection, however, I was and am struck by how often many of us, in an effort to produce an acceptable product, articulate a specific message or connect with others, make initial efforts that do not succeed before we finally get it right and come even close to generating the results we had hoped for. Sometimes our initial efforts do not succeed because they are just plain dumb. Take me, for instance. Many years ago as an undergraduate student majoring in journalism and working for the student newspaper, I had the brilliant idea of doing an expose' on the local police department by getting myself arrested, spending a night in jail, and then writing a story about how awful inmates are treated. I told my faculty adviser about my master plan and, without pulling any punches, he proceeded to tell me that my idea was anything but brilliant. Luckily, he also gave me a number of suggestions as to other ways I might approach this story that would not be so damaging to me. In my case, I was fortunate enough to bounce my initial idea off someone before actually launching my plan. I cannot help but wonder if the two researchers did enough of that before they decided to put themselves at such great risk with those bull sharks.

Communication is often a trial and error undertaking. Good research is one way of helping keep our efforts on track before we unwittingly do ourselves and our potential connections harm. Focus groups and test-marketing efforts are examples of this kind of research. Also, before launching any kind of outreach, gaining a thorough understanding of what has been done before, what worked and what did not also is enormous help. We all do and say dumb things from time to time. The trick is to incorporate research into your initial thinking to help keep to an absolute minimum doing something so dumb that you end up losing a leg or getting a criminal record. Good research is also a great way to ensure that while what and how you communicate may not always be smart, at least it won't be dumb and cannot be improved upon with more efforts.