The value of a label

Regular readers may recall that I have often blogged on the negative habit of labelling.  However, yesterday I was reminded of the positive impact of labelling.  I was working with a client and they were somewhat confused by an upcoming trip to Australia.  They are new in their post and this was an important inaugural visit.  Obviously you only get one chance to make a first impression and this trip was springboard for their new appointment.

We spent some time discussing all the things that they wanted to achieve  and gradually whittled away the list till we were only looking at tasks that had to be done on this trip.  I said “This is only housekeeping then…”  Their face lit up and I could see clarity dawning, their stress level fell instantly.  I later heard them talking about the trip as “just housekeeping!”

Once you have the right label on the tin you know what is expected of you.

Have you any interesting examples of the positive impact of giving something a label?

“Man is the only critter who feels the need to label things as flowers or weeds.”

Tags: labels

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 16:17 and is filed under Hints, Tips & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.