In doing the 3 Bottom Lines Blog we will be doing something we are not accustomed to and something that runs counter to what is a strong, almost compulsive, professional tendency for us as accountants…. to think we must always have a clear answer to all our client’s questions, a definitive solution to their every problem.
We understand that there are frequently times when our clients rely on us to have answers and solutions. They place their trust in our expertise and knowledge in helping them with their accounting, tax and financial statement issues. In those situations, we are much more comfortable giving answers.
But for many of the issues we want to discuss here in the 3 Bottom Lines Blog, there will be no definitive answer, no one solution that fits all. We see our role here as being more the “inquirer” rather than the advocate. As Brian Stanfield in his excellent book The Focused Conversation writes –
The advocate is one who pleads, recommends, pushes a specific perspective, proposal or point of view or a particular product. The advocate is convinced that his position is right and seeks others who will support it. The inquirer, on the other hand, comes at a topic with an open mind looking for a creative or viable option or the facts of a particular matter. He is trying to open up new ground or get a new take on “established truth.”
A large part of the education and training we receive as children and young adults is aimed at making us good advocates and at teaching us an adversarial mode of conversation and dialogue through which one perspective, solution or answer emerges as the one true one and settles the question at hand once and for all. There is an appropriate time and place for this mode of discourse, but this blog is not the place. So…
We want to begin this blog with the assumption that there are no “absolute truths.”
This is not just a matter of the style and tone for us. It really cuts to the heart of the subject we want to discuss which is how some businesses and nonprofit organizations are finding ways to operate more successfully and effectively. There is a quiet revolution of sorts going on in the workplace where forward thinking managers and executives are finding that playing the “inquirer” and conducting open-minded conversations with employees, customers, vendors and suppliers yields enormous benefits. Quoting Stanfield again,
The key to learning is that individuals and small groups in the organization are constantly transforming raw experience into insight and a transformed personal style. Here, the focused conversation can enable groups to reflect what has been happening, what went well or poorly, and why it went thus. Such conversations can be life or death to the learning organization.
OK, enough about us. Suffice to say that as we post we would really welcome your feedback…
Bill Simi