The lesson of the sore hand

The other day I was in our kitchen when my partner said to me “that can go in the oven”, and pointed at a frying pan with an already cooked Spanish omelette in it.

You’d think that six simple words can’t easily be open to misinterpretation.

However, once I had added my own meaning, what I actually heard was “please can you put that frying pan containing the omelette in the oven to keep warm”.

Within seconds I realised that my interpretation was wrong as I grabbed the handle of the frying pan with my bare hand and dropped it even quicker as the extremely hot handle burnt my hand in several places.

The meaning that was actually meant in those six words was “I put the frying pan in the oven to help cook the omelette, so now I know that it’s OK to put that frying pan in the oven”.

What happened in that minute or so is typical of so many conversations that go on in homes and workplaces all the time.

One person delivers a message believing the meaning to be completely clear and impossible to misinterpret. Another person hears the message and adds their own perspective and meaning to the message, and therefore receives a completely different message than the one that was intended.

What could I have done, and what could you therefore do to avoid incorrect interpretations of message that you’re given?

I could have said, “do you mean that you want me to put the frying pan in the oven to keep it warm?”

That simple confirmation question would have saved me a sore hand.

What question could you ask next time you assume you know what someone means?

As you’ve probably heard before, when you assume you make an ass of u and me!