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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

It's not an either/or world just because someone asks you to choose A or B.

Choose A or B is classic sales set up designed to cause you to choose something, most likely something you will pay for.

We are conditioned in our country to want choices.  When we see a choice, we automatically think, yes--now, which one?

That's one of the ways that people mislead or misdirect others in the workplace in all sorts of workplace documents.

Beware of either/or set-ups because you can find yourself on path A or path B when you didn't want to go anywhere at all.

That's one lesson to learn from the focus on making a choice that someone else might set up for you.

But there's more.

Recently, I asked my niece what did she want for breakfast.

"A sausage biscuit," she replied.

"Hardee's or McDonald's?"  I inquired.  A or B?

She shrugged. "A sausage biscuit is a sausage biscuit," she said without equivocating. 


A or B didn't matter.  She just wanted a sausage biscuit.

We found one. 

Not every decision is as simple as that one.

But moments to choose can be as simple, if you can remember to think about the question and what the purpose is behind it.

The next time anyone offers you one or the other, you can easily say, neither--or, you could say both.

It's not an either/or world just because someone sets up the question that way.  Be ready to rewrite the question to fit what you need or want to do and you take charge of this powerful set-up that you can use when you need to while not letting anyone use it to manipulate you.

1 comment:

  1. I hate when I have a decision between A or B and A is such a great deal that I feel like I can't afford not to take it.

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