A/B Test Your Advice

Eye roll.

Have you ever been given advice and done the old, teenage eye roll? Ever have the eye roll done to you, while offering advice?

Yep.

Here is a trick to eliminate that from happening in the future. A/B test our advice first.

The first thing we should do before giving advice is to make sure the person receiving the advice is accepting of the advice: A = Accepting.

Now usually, this is the easy part. People are usually going up to others asking for advice, help, or assistance. So, the acceptance is implied, most of the time. It is still a good idea, and good practice, to make sure though.

Where we can trip up on this step, is when we want to butt in. We overhear a conversation, we have the answer, and we want to help. So, we interrupt the people in the conversation, and we start offering up our advice. Enter: the eye roll.

If you absolutely need to butt in, ask the people talking if it is alright, first. This simple, initial question will help everyone get the most out of your advice. Don’t assume even if you are absolutely certain you have the answer and are the correct person to help; always ask first.

(These folks are in the middle of problem solving. Let them carry that process through. Doing so will pay dividends in the future.)

The second step is to understand the person’s background in their current, advice-seeking situation: B = Background.

Be inquisitive by asking what they have done up to this point, what have they tried so far, or what other options were they thinking about trying. By understanding where they have already been, you, the advice giver, can give better advice; something they haven’t tried or haven’t thought of yet.

This background piece is the one usually missed by most. We tend to jump right in and start offering up ideas and thoughts. But, this is the most important part of advice giving, especially if you want to avoid the eye roll. Don’t offer suggestions that they already tried. Don’t take them back to square one.

Isn’t that a common situation that sends you into an eye roll? I am sure you can think of a time when you asked for help only to get back exactly what you already tried. On top of being useless advice, it is wasting your time. You are already frustrated because you are having a tough go at accomplishing your task, and now, you get to sit through useless support.

Another aspect to the background piece is having the correct background, yourself, to help. If you don’t know the answer or don’t know how to help, stay out of it. I am sure you have seen reviews and answers on shopping sites where the person giving feedback says they don’t know, never tried it, or would never have the answer. If that is the case, they should not have replied at all.

Why! (A topic for another time.) Still: Why!

Now if they came to you for help, and you don’t know the answer, use this opportunity to work together to find the answer. Help and learn something yourself. Team building exercise. Once again, this is where asking those initial ‘what have you tried’ questions comes into play.

An added bonus of the background side is that these questions reinforce problem solving skills within your team.

Keep in mind that if you start to get that eye roll, you have lost them. They lost interest in your help. Your advice might be the exact, correct answer, but it is falling on deaf ears.

Whether we are asked for our advice or we want to just offer it up, take a moment to make sure two aspects are considered first: A and B, Acceptance and Background.

Check to make sure they are accepting of your help, ask a few background gathering questions, and then offer your advice.