I don’t think this level of trickery is a good idea.
If you’re working with someone honest, you should ask for the info you want. On the other hand, if you’re working with someone who will obfuscate when asked “Are you working on X?”, I don’t see a strong reason to believe that they will give better info when instead asking about their top priorities.
Perhaps. I would not consider it “trickery”. You wanted specific information, but instead asked for general information that contained that specific.
If I am the one being asked “are you still working on X”, then (for some values of X) I can imagine my though process being “Oh yeah, X, I have been meaning to get onto that”, and replying “Sorry, I have been busy with other stuff, will get onto it”, then drop the other stuff and do indeed get on with X. In the context of this discussion that would not be the intended outcome, because the intent of the question was to discover information, not to change my priorities.
I think you are sort of missing the point when you bring in “honesty”. Even an honest co-worker who you trust can have a thing that is number 10 on their to-do list. A simple yes/no “is it on your to-do list” would yield a yes. Although in this case it is in real danger of never actually being done, simply because if its number 10 on the list now then its implied value is low enough that new things coming onto the list are very likely to leapfrog it.
I still think that if you want to know where X is on someone’s TODO list, you should ask that instead of asking for their full TODO list. This feels nearly as wrong as asking for someone’s top 5 movies of the year, instead of whether or not they liked Oppenheimer (when you want to know if they liked Oppenheimer).
It’s about asking the right questions to get the right info. I feel like your example actually disproves your point. In my perspective asking for someone’s top 5 movies of the year is going to much more accurately predict if they liked Oppenheimer than asking if they liked Oppenheimer directly. The direct question will imply that you have some interest in Oppenheimer and are probably expecting them to either like it or at least have a strong opinion of it. Their inference will then affect the accuracy of their answer.
There haven’t been many good movies released in 2023 so if someone doesn’t include Oppenheimer in their top 5 list then they probably didn’t like the movie and you know your question didn’t bias them towards any particular opinion.
Very well described.
In terms of asking people where a project is, I have a vague idea that instead of asking “Are you still working on project X”, you can instead ask
Q : “Hey, what projects are you working on/prioritising at the moment?”
A: “A is happening today. I want to get onto B at the end of the week. C is happening in the background. I haven’t forgotten D, don’t worry.”
Q: (Knows that X is not happening)
I don’t think this level of trickery is a good idea.
If you’re working with someone honest, you should ask for the info you want. On the other hand, if you’re working with someone who will obfuscate when asked “Are you working on X?”, I don’t see a strong reason to believe that they will give better info when instead asking about their top priorities.
Perhaps. I would not consider it “trickery”. You wanted specific information, but instead asked for general information that contained that specific.
If I am the one being asked “are you still working on X”, then (for some values of X) I can imagine my though process being “Oh yeah, X, I have been meaning to get onto that”, and replying “Sorry, I have been busy with other stuff, will get onto it”, then drop the other stuff and do indeed get on with X. In the context of this discussion that would not be the intended outcome, because the intent of the question was to discover information, not to change my priorities.
I think you are sort of missing the point when you bring in “honesty”. Even an honest co-worker who you trust can have a thing that is number 10 on their to-do list. A simple yes/no “is it on your to-do list” would yield a yes. Although in this case it is in real danger of never actually being done, simply because if its number 10 on the list now then its implied value is low enough that new things coming onto the list are very likely to leapfrog it.
I still think that if you want to know where X is on someone’s TODO list, you should ask that instead of asking for their full TODO list. This feels nearly as wrong as asking for someone’s top 5 movies of the year, instead of whether or not they liked Oppenheimer (when you want to know if they liked Oppenheimer).
It’s about asking the right questions to get the right info. I feel like your example actually disproves your point. In my perspective asking for someone’s top 5 movies of the year is going to much more accurately predict if they liked Oppenheimer than asking if they liked Oppenheimer directly. The direct question will imply that you have some interest in Oppenheimer and are probably expecting them to either like it or at least have a strong opinion of it. Their inference will then affect the accuracy of their answer.
There haven’t been many good movies released in 2023 so if someone doesn’t include Oppenheimer in their top 5 list then they probably didn’t like the movie and you know your question didn’t bias them towards any particular opinion.