Stop Assuming, Start Clarifying

The way we commute has changed dramatically with the advent of Ola and Uber Cabs. Here is an account of my first time experience with this type of cab service and the insightful experience that followed.

 

I was in Chennai and I had to do some local travel. On having seen many newspaper ads and having heard from friends about Ola cab services, I thought I would give it a try. So, I downloaded the app from the Google Play store and installed it on my mobile.

 

Using this app, I made a request and within 3 to 5 minutes a cab arrived. As I was new to Ola, I was not sure of how it works. I did not check my SMS too. I was just amazed to see an Ola cab approaching me, within few minutes of sending a request. I just got into the cab and said Adayar. The car started moving towards the destination. After few minutes of travel, I got a bit curious to know how this system works. So, I initiated a chat with the cab driver, asking how Ola is doing and how is it they are able to reach the customer so quickly.

 

So he started explaining the process and in the process he said, “just like you would have received a SMS from Ola giving the driver name and car number”. It was here, I got a bit puzzled. I told him, I did not receive any such SMS. He said, that I should have received it. So immediately, I picked up my phone and checked to find that it was there. So I just read out the message loud which had the car number and driver name. The driver was shocked. He said that was not his name and that was not his car number. It was then he figured out, that he has made a wrong pick up and blamed me for not checking out his name, before boarding the car. I from my point of argument said, “It is you who should have verified the customer name, before I boarded the vehicle.” After all the finger pointing, I asked him to proceed to my destination. He said that it was possible, as the trip is monitored by the Ola team and he has to drop me back at my pick up point and pick up the right customer.

 

I had only two options. Either I get down right there and board a different vehicle or go back to the point of pick up, where the right cab assigned to me, would be waiting. I chose the latter and so he drove me back to my starting point which was around 3 kms. He then dropped me back, where luckily the car assigned to me was waiting.

 

It was altogether a funny episode, but it also made me reflect on my flaw of assuming, without seeking clarity. A saying goes, the word ASSUME itself means, don’t make an ‘ASS’ of ‘U’ and ‘ME’. I realized I had just done that, by making one such wrong assumption.

 

Many times in life, we make some quick assumptions like this and end up in trouble. No doubt we are too busy and we act in a hurried manner, but that should not disturb us being sharp in our day to day activities. We need to pay attention to details.  We need to be more effective in communicating and make sure that the other person has clearly understood what we have told them.

 

Does it not happen, that many a times, we give some instructions to our subordinate, colleague or family member, assuming that they have understood, but end up seeing that they have totally misunderstood and done something totally different.  Later we blame them for doing it wrong.  If we take the little extra effort to clarify our communication, we can avoid ending up in such a messy situation.

 

Let us stop assuming and start clarifying.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com