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Framework: Levels of Tasking
Hello guys,
I had this post for a long time in my mind. There are obviously levels to tasking. That means going from very dominant to respectfully asking to a superior. This is a work in progress. With your contribution and if I have new ideas we can solidify this framework to make it PU-worthy! I'm open to feed-back as usual. This is experiential knowledge, not evidence-based knowledge as the point has been raised here. Here we go from more dominant to less dominant:
1. Bossing around
Example: Give me the fork! (Angry tone)
This is appropriate only in emergency situations or when someone has done inadequate when you are rightfully pissed off (a child misbehaving).
2. Dominant non-verbal
Example: points to the fork.
This is appropriate in very hierarchical work environment or when the differential of power is big (customer in a high end restaurant calling the waiter with a wiggling finger).
3. Ordering
Example: Give me the fork (neutral/warm tone)
This is adequate in many situations. In social circles between friends as it is shorter and there is reciprocity in helping one another. Which would be replied by a typical counter-task: "Have it/Take it" (French: "Tiens"). This is also adequate at work with subordinates who respect you a lot and where you are obviously higher power than them.
4. Ordering politely
Example: Give me the fork please (neutral/warm tone)
This is when you are tasking an equal with whom you are not very well acquainted (an acquaintance or a friend's friend). At work it would be with subordinates who respect your authority but where you don't know each other well yet.
5. Asking
Example: can you give me the fork?
This gives the taskee the right to refuse in appearance but it's more rhetorical. It means: "I'm aware you can refuse this but it would be socially inadequate to do so". This is more adequate between equals.
Another example is in social circle situation, when we would change venues and you go: "Are we going?" which is a leading move to go.
6. Asking politely
Example: can you give me the fork please?
This is a level where you don't have enough power for the other person to accept. For instance in a working situation where you're talking to a subordinate who does not respect your authority. The added "please" is a social nudge and a light deference to get the desired task to be done.
7. Asking politely in conditional form
Example: could you please give me the fork?
This is adequate in situations where you are tasking a superior or someone higher power than you. There is the conditional that this person could refuse, a politeness added. As the likelihood to refuse is high, the investment in the request is higher (higher energy investment).
8. Heavy investment
Example: By any chance would you be kind enough to pass me the fork please?
The more you feel your request might be turned down, the more you invest in the ask. For instance with strangers on a bus or a train.
Of course, this is fluid, it's not black and white. The examples could fit in other categories as well. I'm always careful not to go too far in the analytical direction but I think the exercise could be useful to be done once to better structure our minds.
We could structure it further like this:
1. Technique
Example
Example X
Work:Â
- Superior: not appropriate, etc.
- Equals: appropriate, etc.
- Subordinate: appropriate, etc.
Social circle:Â
- Superior: not appropriate, etc.
- Equals: appropriate, etc.
- Subordinate: appropriate, etc.
What do you guys think?
Cheers!
I think anything where we can use general rules to standardise our approach is gold. Otherwise PD becomes like learning a language. This massive rote learning task. The only thing is there its hard to standardise nuances. Like if somebody says 'Give me the spanner' when we're working on a car I wouldn't be offended. Maybe we can take some tasking examples and see if it would be helpful.
I realize that I use 6 and 7 a lot, and my attempt at politeness would potentially be taken as low-power by more aggressive/less friendly people. I do like the universality of 3 and 4. I would say it also is culture-dependent. For example, 4 sounds more appropriate than 3 where I am for most occasions.
I remember I had a high power high warmth supervisor who would also use 6 and 7 a lot. But nobody would think he is someone to mess with. And I agree with Transitioned that linguistically it can be difficult to standardize, and context can have a big influence.
There are also potentially more variations in nonverbals. For example, one can sarcastically say something like “Would you please pass me the fork, will you?" This subcommunicates that the asker is impatient and annoyed, and the "will you" is more rhetoric and slightly demeaning.
I agree with you both about context and culture.
The concept is that there exists a continuum in formulating tasks depending on your power relative to the taskee.
Beyond that there are all the variations, exceptions and the cases in between.
Thanks for sharing, John. I also find it very helpful to elucidate the 50 shades of tasking to calibrate the answer.
