Determinar y priorizar los requerimientos de Información

The idea of making your threat credible is that you want to prove you will not back down. One way this can be achieved is by intentionally limiting your options to improve your bargaining position.

A short story will illustrate the strategy. Consider the following situation: John and Tim are both finishing projects at a consulting company and they are ready to be staffed on new projects. Their skill-sets and work ethics are similar, and both are considered team-players. Though they are comparable employees, their projects have been very different. For the last year, Tim has been stuck on projects with repetitious tasks, like gathering data, while John has been able to enjoy exciting projects with travel to places like Hawaii.

Tim's poor fate is all too common. I suspect you too have a similar experience where a fellow coworker of similar talent gets better work than you.

I wonder why some people get cooler projects. Often, it is the case that good projects simply go to talented employees and likeable employees. I bet this obvious explanation explains much of staffing choices. But it is only part of the story.

How does a company staff employees of similar talent, like John and Tim? Luck may play a role, but I doubt companies are tossing coins and randomly staffing projects. Ultimately, managers and coordinators decide staffing and they make decisions based on how the people they staff will react. Is there a way John could influence their decision to staff him on better projects?

The answer has to do with why some airline passengers pretend to have special dietary needs, and why Stanford Economics professors were willing to give up authority in teaching their courses.

Airline Food

Airline food jokes are a dime a dozen. I'm not sure why airline food is terrible, but it is probably related two facts. First, airlines save money by giving passengers the cheapest food. And second, the food is served to everyone and as the saying goes: when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.

What can you do as a passenger to get better food? You can demonstrate that you are not the average customer by requesting a specialty meal, like vegetarian or kosher food, which are often better than the normal fare.

Why is the special-order food better? It is because you signal your tastes belong to a special group and hence the food is not just the plain meal. For instance, vegetarian food will likely have fresh fruit, which may not be appreciated by all passengers. The essence is that you can improve your food situation on an airline by limiting your options of what you say you can eat.

Can we really get better results by limiting our options? Let's consider how Stanford Economics professors made themselves happier by limiting their authority.

Stanford University Economics Professors

University professors are a proud bunch. They pride themselves on intellectual and social freedom. One of my professors confessed to me that he did not want corporate work since he could not survive with a direct boss controlling his work. Professors relish freedom, and in fact, it is this freedom that allows tenured professors to take risks, like discussing new perspectives on controversial political issues.

Naturally, you might think that professors would want freedom to teach their classes however they see fit. So why did Stanford Economic professors willingly agree to a three-page document dictating course policies like exam attendance and correcting errors in grading?

The truth is that professors do not like dealing with issues like students missing exams and correcting errors in grading. Prior to the rules, they had to think of fair ways to handle many special requests, which they did not even want to consider. By agreeing to the three page set of rules that limits their authority over these issues, the professors could tell students they have no control in the matters. Surprisingly, freedom-loving professors are made better off by giving up control and restricting their freedom.

Getting Good Projects

We now return to your employer. If you want to get on better projects, figure out a way to limit your options by becoming less flexible. There are many ways to do this.

Perhaps you can subtly voice how unhappy you are in bad projects so you get a reputation of not doing well on them. If you are valued enough on good projects, you will probably be staffed on them over your similarly talented coworker who is less vocal about bad projects.

Alternately, if “bad projects” are those with longer hours, you can try to avoid them by filling your personal schedule with appointments you cannot miss. You limit your flexibility and reduce their chances of staffing you longer hours. You walk a fine line and you have to be careful that people understand the appointments are truly out of your control—like a the exam date for a professional course, or a concert you are playing for—instead of things you could do other times—like a weekend vacation or a non-emergency doctor's appointment.