Artistry at Work

I saw a police officer directing traffic the other day. She had to alternate traffic through one lane because of some digging on one side of the road. Seeing her directing traffic reminded me of another officer I saw directing traffic in downtown Cleveland back in the 1980s. This guy impressed me. I saw him as I was walking back to my car during the afternoon rush hour. He had to direct four lanes of traffic in each direction, and looked good doing it.

This was before traffic officers wore green fluorescent vests. If people had cell phones in their cars in those days, they still called them “car phones.”  The officer wore his dress blues, complete with snow-white gloves and a white hat. He used grand, fluid motions to communicate how he wanted the traffic to move. I noticed that he made eye contact with drivers as much as possible, and seemed to know his whistle codes quite well. I enjoyed watching him work, and he seemed to enjoy his job.

It struck me that adding some artistry to his work made him more effective at his job. His stylized arm and hand motions caught the eye and made clear what the drivers needed to do. I wondered if he wore a dress uniform because he was black. A black officer probably needs something like that for motorists to respect his authority.

The traffic officer in Cleveland had a more difficult job than I do. I thought of him when I gave my blog the title “The Art of Interviewing.” Sounding smooth and authoritative on the phone usually results in higher productivity and better quality of information. Reading questions verbatim without sounding like I am reading from a script helps keep respondents interested in a survey.

I have to be authoritative with respondents without seeming like a jerk. On a recent project, some respondents had difficulty choosing from Agree Strongly, Agree Somewhat, Disagree Somewhat, or Disagree Strongly on a battery of questions. Instead of going into a lecture about how we need standardized answers to compare answers and keep the survey scientific, I just said “I need you to pick one of those four.”

Almost any job can be done better if the worker thinks of himself or herself as an artist. I do not mean to endorse “creative accounting,” though. Let us not get carried away.

The Rhythm of Work

My father taught me not only the value of work, but also how to work. When I was a kid he recruited me to help a friend move to a new house. Some of the items required two men to move. My dad talked to me about moving in the same rhythm as my partner. My uncle ran a dairy farm. From him I learned about sensing the rhythms of machines.

Most of the work I do now is with my voice and my fingertips, but the ability to sense the rhythms of people and machines helps me to be productive and makes the work less stressful. It is a way of working smarter, not necessarily harder. Sensing the rhythms of people when I interview them on the phone means listening to them. I am getting better at knowing how fast or slow to read a questionnaire introduction by the way a person answers the phone. I find that telling them who I am and what I am calling about, and then pausing long enough for them to say something, goes a long way toward gaining cooperation.

Understanding the rhythms of work also means setting a pace. This usually depends on the workload for the day, but I usually start with setting a goal of making 100 calls before noon. To do this, I like to keep up a fast pace for an hour, take a short break, then get back to pounding the phone. On some projects I have to dial the phone myself, and on others the computer dials it for me. I usually need a few minutes to adapt when switching from one to the other.

When I make business to business calls I need to think about the seasonal and workday rhythms of the people I am calling. Some people like to be at their desks at 7:00 AM so that they can get things done before everyone else gets to the office and the phone starts ringing. Other people are better reached after 10:00 AM.

I think I have the rhythms of telephone interviewing down. I want to do more writing, so I am working on the rhythms of that kind of work. It is starting to look like getting some writing done is similar to accomplishing my goal of making 100 calls before noon: it’s easier if I just get the first call over with.